Shadow Turned Light
by High Crystal Guardian
Summary: Yugi discovers a strange portal similar to the Shadow realm portals and is pulled through. Suddenly he discovers himself in a completely alternate universe, where there is even more danger than he could expect--and his Yami is missing. *complete*
1. Startling Discovery

Hello all, and welcome to my first ever Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan fiction. I'm the High Crystal Guardian, (or just "Guardian" for short) and I hope you enjoy my fic...as much as the endless babbling of my two "muses" (more like pains in the ***'s) Karma, and Slash. 

Karma: Hey! Watch it!

Slash: Yeah!

HCG: o_O;; you guys are _agreeing _on something?!

Karma & Slash: *glancing at each other* Er...no?

HCG: *shaking head* Anyway...Karma'n Slash are my characters, although from a different form of fan fiction. Normally enemies...but apparently not when they're off-duty. They won't be in my Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan fiction (at least, not in this story) but they do like to pop in and chatter at times.

Karma: *grin* That's right!

HCG: *sigh* Anyway, back to the fic. My first fiction is a bit on the odd side (then again, so am I) and portrays the characters very differently then they are in the show. Yugi, through problems with his Millennium Puzzle's magic, suddenly discovers that he has been transported to a completely different dimension--without his Yami. 

Slash: Better stop talking or you'll give everything away!

HCG: ¬_¬;; Right...

Disclaimer: Well, sadly for me, I don't own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters or ideas. However, Slash and Karma belong to ME (as well as the plot in this story, but that's pretty obvious.)

Also, a few notes....

Yugi is "Yugi" while Yami Yugi is simply referred to as "Yami." 

I don't have that accent for the "e" in Tea's name, so we'll just have to go with "Tea" and hope you know what you're reading.

__

Italicized words are thoughts or dreams/memories

/word/ -- Yugi talking to Yami in a mind link

//word// --Yami talking to Yugi in a mind link.

Now, too the story!!!

Shadow Turned Light

Chapter 1: Startling Discovery

_The air in front of the boy seemed to crack open silently, and within the opening rolled shadows. Deathly, terrifying black shadows, threatening to consume him. Startled, he turned to run, to flee the dangers that came ever closer...but he couldn't get away. The shadows kept pace without even trying, it seemed, if shadows had to try to do so. _

Instinctively, the boy opened his mouth to call out for help; but somehow, he couldn't make his voice work. His throat was tight, and he had to fight it to make it loosen even slightly enough for talk. Had to fight too much, in fact. He forgot the need to call out for help and concentrated on the equally strong need to run. 

And still, he couldn't escape the shadows crawling nearer. It seemed that, the closer that they came, the more they almost seemed to speak...

Frightened, he noticed that he really could _hear voices, startlingly terrifying, yet at the same time speaking with something almost like the melody of a song. "You are destined...you must help...help the others, the ones that you know, and yet do not know...you will help them. They need you. Do not try to run."_

The boy's feet pounded on ground that was not ground, that was clear and made of the darkest of colors all at once. Solid, and yet not. He had time for one sharp glance around; he knew where he was now, with darkness ever present, ever living.

The Shadow realm.

Terror built upon terror. Huge eyes widened even more at the registration of such a thought. He couldn't be here...not again...

He opened his mouth again, his throat no longer tight. He wanted to scream. If he did, though, he knew he'd never stop. Never stop until he was as good as dead and gone.

The shadows behind him rolled closer, looming up to high to see with the eye, yet hardly high at all. Tendrils of the dark mass seeped out of its large, gloomy form, reaching out for him.

"You will come. You will follow what is required of you..."

The boy tried to dodge the rope-like restraints of darkness coming toward him--and failed, tripping and falling to the strange ground. The tendrils creeped closer, wrapping around his arms and legs, torso, neck....within moments he was wrapped in something that resembled a spider-web of shadow, neatly caught and not to escape.

At last, he found his voice. "No! God no, please, let me go!"

"We will force you, if we must. You can not avoid your destiny. You must help those that need your assistance. You cannot avoid your destiny!"

The net of darkness dragged him back towards the opening the shadows had first come from. It was much like a doorway, but the boy couldn't have cared at all.

"Destiny..."

The boy no longer cared if he yelled or not. He forced his voice past his tightening throat and screamed, loud, long, and pitifully.

The doorway in the air closed, sealing the sound off as if it had never existed.

*****

//Yugi! Wake up!//

Yugi Moto snapped awake at the sound of his yami's concerned thought through his link. He sat up in his bed, breathing hard, the sheets twisted around him and evidence of frightened tossing and turning. His long golden bangs were plastered to his head with cold sweat, while his magenta-and-black hair was flattened from being smashed against the pillow. He sighed heavily with relief and fell back onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

/Thanks, Yami./ He thought to his other, allowing his breathing to return to it's normal state.

//What was the matter? You seemed frightened...some of your thoughts seeped through the link to me.// 

Yugi sighed again, this time with no trace of relief in it. /Nothing./

//I doubt it,// Yami said dryly through the link. //you were tossing and turning crazily. And you were worried about something; I can tell. I know you had a dream of some sort, that's all it could be. Now, what was it?//

/I said it was nothing./ Yugi rolled over on the bed, trying to find a comfortable position that he could return to his slumber in. Not that he wanted to; that dream had been terrifying, and he hadn't liked it at all. He didn't want it to return, either. Memories of the dream--no, nightmare--flashed through his head, and he had to struggle to hide them from the other soul sharing his mind. 

The pyramid-shaped golden puzzle around his neck shimmered in the moonlight through the window; he grinned momentarily at it, recalling the times when he had solved it, and later met the spirit that lay within. The grin faded just as quickly as it had appeared when the eye symbol in the middle of the puzzle began to glow. _Oh, great, _Yugi thought to himself, _now he's coming out. He just won't give up, will he? _

Yugi sat up in his bed again, knowing it would be pointless to try and ignore his yami. The ancient--and stubborn--pharaoh never gave up trying to get an answer out of Yugi on matters like this. At any other time, he would have felt safe knowing that the spirit was looking out for him so carefully, but right now he was just tired and nervous about his dream. 

The boy turned to find a nearly exact replica of himself standing near the bed, wearing a concerned look on his face. On a casual glance, Yami would have looked like another ordinary being; however, when one looked closer, they could see that he had an almost translucent look about him, as if he were a ghost. Which wasn't very far off, as he was a spirit. 

"Really, Aibou, what is wrong? I cannot help you unless you tell me." His voice was solid now, not like the thought link the two usually used. 

Yugi shrugged, looking up at the spirit. "Just a dream. Nothing I can't handle."

"About what?"

"I can't really remember," Yugi lied. It was as clear as a bell in his mind, but if he told his Yami about the dream the spirit would probably worry.

The ancient pharaoh frowned. "You can tell me, you know."

His Hikari sighed again. "You know me too well," he mumbled. "Alright, I will tell you. I was in the Shadow realm, and there was something there that kept calling to me...it wanted me to go help somebody...but it was terrifying, the way it talked and acted. And then it caught me and--" He shuddered, remembering being drawn through the opening in the air, unable to escape. "--and then I woke up," he finished lamely.

"Odd," Yami mused, before concern spread over his face again. "But it was just a dream. You've nothing to worry about, Aibou."

"I don't know," Yugi said quietly. "It was all so real--more real than any dream I've ever had before--I felt like it was trying to tell me something."

His darker half frowned. He muttered something under his breath; Yugi caught the words "Shadow realm" and "dreamer," but that was all. Finally, he spoke, though slowly.

"It may have been a warning."

Yugi blinked his large violet eyes in confusion. "What?"

Yami sighed. "The Shadow realm has ways of warning people of...things to come, I suppose. I've never been quite sure of how it works, but it does connect to people's dreams in an unusual way."

His lighter side turned to him questioningly. "Than what was it trying to tell me?"

All he received in answer was a shrug. "I don't know, other than the obvious. You're going to help somebody soon."

Yugi shuddered. "I don't want to go through that nightmare again," he whispered, almost inaudibly. "It was horrible."

Yami looked down at his little charge, who was shaking slightly, and sat down on the bed. "Rest," he said gently. "You have no more need to worry of Shadowdreams any longer, or at least for now. I will guard your dreams tonight."

Comforted, the little Hikari lay back down on his side on the bed, staring out the window at the night stars. His yami whispered soothingly to him; within moments the boy had fallen into a deep, relaxed slumber. 

Smiling gently down at the boy, the pharaoh released his hold on his visible form, returning to the soul room he inhabited within Yugi's mind. Quietly, he eased the door of his room open and headed to his lighter sides' soul room door. Sitting outside the entrance, he allowed himself to fall into a light doze. 

No more evil dreams would bother Yugi Moto that night.

***** 

Yugi woke early the next morning, yawning slightly as he sat up in bed. He ruffled his long blonde bangs as he ran a hand through his spiky hair, then threw off the sheets and touched his bare feet to the cold floor. 

He dressed quietly, grabbed his backpack, and headed down the stairs for breakfast, still yawning. It was only when he was halfway to the kitchen that he remembered the dream he had had that night, and his midnight talk with his yami. 

True to his word, the pharaoh spirit had warded off any other Shadowdreams that may have visited his Hikari, or at least Yugi believed so from the calmness of his dreams for the rest of the night. Switching his backpack's weight from one shoulder to another, he glanced down at the golden Millennium Puzzle hanging from his neck and bouncing gently with his walk. 

As if seeing the Puzzle was a reminder of his yami, Yugi concentrated and contacted his other through the mind link.

/Yami?/

//I'm here, Yugi. Did you sleep well?// Though not positive, the boy thought he could detect a faint trace of fatigue in the pharaoh's thoughts.

/Yeah, I slept fine. Thanks again, Yami. There were no other Shadowdreams trying to reach me, though, were there?/

There was silence for a minute. //There was...one incident. Something tried to force it's way into your mind. Something from the Shadow realm. But I took care of it, don't worry.//

Yugi grimaced a little at the thought of _another _Shadowdream, but he trusted his Yami entirely. If he said he took care of it, there was nothing left to worry about.

/I won't worry. Hey, why don't you get some rest? You sound tired. Were you up all night?/

//Well...yes. I was outside your soul room a majority of the time. I had to ward off the Shadowdreams _somehow._//

Yugi chuckled at the rather defensive-sounding note in his darker spirit's thoughts. /Thanks. Get some rest now. I doubt I'd need your help at school or anything./

//Alright, Aibou.// 

Silence followed, and the boy could tell that his Yami had retreated to his soul room. Smiling a bit, the Hikari wandered into the kitchen and made himself a quick breakfast. His grandfather was already neatening up the Game Shop, he guessed, as he sat down and munched on a small piece of toast. 

Once done with breakfast, he carefully cleaned up the few dishes left and headed down to the game shop. He waved good morning to his grandfather, who was busy sweeping and only made a quick wave in return. Yugi didn't mind too much, though; he had just spotted Tea walking towards the game shop, as usual, and he dashed off to join her.

Tea smiled as he ran up to her, her medium-length brown hair whipping around in the wind slightly. "Hey Yugi! What's new?"

"Hey, Tea," Yugi said, smiling. "Nothing really. Just have a big test in math today and I'm pretty sure I'm going to pass..."

The talk continued on, consisting of mostly small things; tests, classes, plans for the day, and the like. Yugi never mentioned his nightmare though, or how his darker spirit protected him from them again while he slept. He meant to worry no more people than he could help.

The two of them reached the school almost at the same time as Joey and Tristen. The two were bickering again, as usual, and as usual over idiotic and pointless things; this time it seemed to be who could eat the most faster. Wisely, Yugi stayed out of the argument, but mentally he had to agree with Joey. He chuckled to himself at the thought while the other two roared off onto new heights in their arguments, coming perilously close to the point when they began to mock fight each other. 

Thankfully, the bell rang, and the four of them filed into the school hallways. Joey and Tristen seemed to be calming down, which was lucky, as their bickering didn't always end so smoothly. 

On their way in, they met up with Ryou, who smiled quietly and fell into place behind the others. Without even thinking, Yugi checked him over to see if he was sporting any new injuries or bruises from his own rather abusive Yami; thankfully, there were none. 

They moved on to their regular classes as normal, and the morning passed without much excitement. Seto Kaiba, in one of his classes, managed to prove the teacher wrong yet again, much to the amusement of the students. Kaiba, of course, thought nothing of it, returning to his class work with a sly smirk and hardly anything else. At lunch, Yugi easily beat Joey in another duel; this resulted in a smart remark from Tristen, which in turn lead to Joey pelting him with a few french fries off his lunch tray, which finally resulted in a mini war of food. After the two of them barely escaped from a detention with their lives, classes resumed and the rest of the school day passed uneventfully.

At last, the bell finally rang, and students swarmed out onto the courtyard with every intention of leaving as soon as possible. Yugi sighed as he started for home; none of his friends could come over today, as they all had things to do. Tea was babysitting, he believed, while Ryou had a boatload of homework, and Tristen and Joey had their usual sports practices. 

Despite the absence of his friends, Yugi walked along with a calm and cheerful pace. There was always a _ton _to do when you had a Game Shop to run in the family, he reflected, and he, too, had quite a bit of homework to do.

//No friends today, Aibou?//

His Yami's thoughts startled him, and his cheerful walk twitched in surprise. /I thought you were resting!/

There was a chuckle from his darker side. //A bit jumpy, aren't we? Yes, I _was _resting. I'm fine now.//

Yugi laughed. /I should've known. Yeah, none of the others are coming over today, but that's okay because Grandpa asked me to--/

His thought through the link was cut short by Yami's sudden jolt of surprise. 

//I don't believe it!//

His Hikari blinked. /What?/

//There's strong magic nearby...almost like the Shadow realm, but...// the spirit cut off.

Yugi shuddered as a quick flash of his dream came back to mind. He shook it off. /Shadow realm? As in somebody going _into _the Shadow realm?/ If that was true, it all narrowed down to one person: Bakura. If that was the case, then they were in for a _lot _of trouble. Although he could have sworn that Bakura had gone in the other direction from him...

//It's not Bakura.// The pharaoh said calmly, as if he knew what had gone through Yugi's mind. Which, the boy thought on reflection, he probably did. //It feels like a portal to the Shadow realm, but not quite...I don't know how to explain it, really.//

Again, a piece of Yugi's dream flashed through his mind--the door, open in the air and dragging him, helpless, through it. He shook his head to drive away the memory and continued his conversation with Yami.

/Do you have any idea what it might be? Are you _sure _it's not a Millennium item?/

//I'm almost positive. And no, I don't know what it could be. You wouldn't mind if we took a quick detour to check it, would you?//

Another flash of the dream. A warning, Yami had said. He pushed it aside. /I don't mind at all./

He felt his darker spirit's presence meld with his own soul and gently take control of his body. By now, Yugi was used to the idea of another being controlling him, and he hardly paid attention to it, although his friends occasionally remarked that it sounded odd to have such a thing happen. 

He turned down a side-street and navigated a few other roads that he didn't really know, trusting his Yami. The spirit seemed to be completely focused on locating the source of magic; it was harder for him, considering that the Puzzle wasn't made to locate things as the Millennium Ring was. Nevertheless, after several minutes of seemingly aimless wandering, his darker spirit steered him into an alley and faced...whatever the magic source was. 

At first, it looked as though nothing was there. No people, no animals, no strange items. However, after a second the air began to shimmer, and...

Yugi couldn't believe his eyes; the very air in front of him was slicing neatly open, cutting a rip in the fabric of the atmosphere itself and leaving nothing but darkness within. 

_My dream! _He thought, silently. He almost turned to leave when he realized that he wasn't the one controlling his body; that was Yami.

The rip within the air was widening, now. Shadows, nearly like fog, were spilling out and rolling along the ground towards him. They moved slowly, but steadily. 

//Amazing,// he heard the ancient pharaoh mutter in the link. //It feels like a portal to the Shadow realm, but at the same time different...as if it leads to somewhere farther away.// The spirit absent-mindedly took a step forward, as if meaning to move to the rip in the air and examine it. 

_No! Not closer!_ The young Hikari screamed frantically in his thoughts. His dream was flashing faster and faster throughout his mind now. He didn't want to go near that hole in the air, whether he had to fight his Yami to stop him or not.

//What is it, Aibou?// He heard his other ask, concerned. The pharaoh had stopped moving forward, sensing his charge's fear. 

/The dream...this is what happened in the dream.../ Yugi nearly whispered.

The darker spirit glanced at the portal once before turning and saying quietly, //I will not force you to encounter this, then. Let us go.//

The boy nearly sighed in relief. He didn't have to face that...that _thing_...and he didn't have to re-live that dream of his. He still felt nervous about turning his back on it, but his Yami's presence comforted him, and he relaxed slightly. 

But the rip in the air had other plans for him. 

The shadows crawling along the ground moved silently closer, almost as if they were stalking Yugi and his other. Without warning, they snagged the boy's ankles, successfully holding him in place and holding off his escape. His Yami narrowed his eyes, turning as best as he could to face the shadows coming closer. 

Without warning, the darkness shot forward, clinging to anything it could grasp of the boy. It was as if he was being chained, caught in a net, all over again. _Like in the dream..._

It was dragging him closer to the hole hovering above the pavement now. Mentally, the Hikari shuddered; his terror was as real as it had been in his dream. 

Yami didn't enjoy feeling his lighter side's obvious fear, and retaliated against the shadows wrapping him up. The Millennium Puzzle glowed brightly, blasting light in all directions, making the shadows writhe and fade away, loosening their hold. Without thinking, he ran. One step, two, three steps--and he was caught again, the shadows only tightening their hold on the yami and his charge. 

/NO!/ Yugi cried out, in thought and in the link, as once again he was dragged back toward the portal. The shadows wrapped around his head, over his eyes...he couldn't see. Everything was a black expanse, with nothing friendly and light for him to focus on. 

Vaguely he realized that he really _was _in a black landscape, albeit a mental one. He was standing, no longer caught by shadowy restraints, although distantly he could feel his physical body still ensnared within them.

Suddenly, across the gloom, he could see a small light bounding toward him; the light of a Millennium Item. It continued to strengthen in it's glow, until the figure that came with it was recognizable...

"Yami!" he cried out, surprised, but not really, once he had the chance to think through the situation. His darker side would naturally be in any mental realms that he was in, the two of them being connected.

The ancient pharaoh nodded, glancing around the dark landscape with a shake of his golden bangs. "I don't trust this place at all, Aibou. I need to get you out of here, and quick."

Yugi shuddered. "I wouldn't mind that at all. This place is creepy." The "ground" beneath his feet shifted a little, but he paid no attention.

Yami sighed. "I know...it's a mind trick. Whatever those shadows are composed of, they're smart enough to catch one mentally as well as physically."

His Hakari groaned slightly. "This didn't happen in my dream, but--" his speech cut off short as the ground beneath him abruptly shifted, as if made of water, and then crumbled out from under him. 

He dropped like a stone, down to the abyss in the mind that waited for him. He found himself yelling hoarsely for his darker side, and in the next moment found his Yami grasping hold of one of his hands. His other was kneeling on the side of the sudden opening, straining to hold his Light up. 

_Straining? But I'm not _that _big..._

The realization dawned on him as he stared desperately up at his Yami. The shadows, ones very similar to those that had caught him just moments before, were attacking the pharaoh. It was as if they _wanted _him to let go of his Hakari and let him fall to...

To what?

Twisting his head slightly, he glanced downward at the abyss below him. Twisting shadows were all that he could see at first...and then his eyes focused on the portal. The portal, a huge rip in the air--in his _mind--_that shimmered brightly. He could see movement through it now, not darkness. It only made him fear it more.

A glow from above brought him back to his senses. He glanced upward again, startled by what he saw.

Yami was trying his hardest to drive the murderous shadows away, with the assistance of the Millennium Puzzle, but it didn't do him much good. To make matters worse, his hand was loosing it's grip...

Time seemed to stand still for Yugi, dangling helplessly over the void in his mind, and his darker half, trying desperately to save him. Slowly, so agonizingly slowly, his hand slipped from the pharaoh's grasp. Without any more support, he fell, tumbling end over end, towards the portal.

He didn't scream as he fell. He simply felt shocked. He was confused, and scared, and quite suddenly overwhelmed with fatigue. 

He closed his eyes and felt himself fall into a deep rest, crashing through the portal below him. It sealed up instantly, as though he had never been there.

Only the devastated scream that exploded from Yami's lips told of anything different.

*****

HCG: ^_^ oooooh, sudden end, huh?

Karma: Hmmph. I know what'll happen next. See--

HCG: *covering Karma's mouth* Don't tell!!!

Karma: Mmmphff!

Slash: *winks at Guardian* I'll take over from here. That was the end of the first chapter. HCG is going to continue to write more chapters, but she would REALLLLY enjoy some reviews. So please, please, PLEASE review for her, okay?

HCG: Could not have said it better myself, Slash ^_^

Karma: *glares at Slash, mouth still covered* Hmm mmpff!

HCG: Anyway, review and I will give you the gift of another chapter!


	2. Rude Awakening

HCG: *bouncing-off-the-walls excited*

Karma: *confused* What's wrong with you?

Slash: Nothing's wrong with her. She just got a review, that's all.

Karma: Oh. So she's going insane because she got a review?

HCG: No, stupid! *smacks Karma* I'm excited because I honestly never thought I'd _get _a review, and especially not the first day I posted the story!

Karma: Oooh.

HCG: But I DID, so now, as I said, I will give you people the next chapter to read! And a special thanks to Weeping Angel, who was my first reviewer ^_^ THANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!!

Slash: o_O;; Calm down Guardian.

HCG: ^_^;; Right. Okay. Karma, disclaimer?

Karma: *nods* HCG doesn't own Yu-gi-Oh, but she does own me'n Slash. And we're so much better so it's fair ^_~

HCG: Um...yeah! Story!

Notes: 

Yugi is Yugi, while Yami Yugi will be referred to as simply "Yami."

__

italicized words are thoughts or dreams/memories

/word/ -- Yugi speaking to Yami in a mind link

//word// --Yami speaking to Yugi in a mind link

Shadow Turned Light 

Chapter 2: Rude Awakening

The first thing Yugi felt that brought him back to consciousness was a striking pain in his head, as if somebody had tried to slice it open to get into his mind. The pain rolled away, as if deciding to leave the boy's head alone, but then suddenly returned with such a stab of agony that the young Hikari groaned without meaning to.

As the sound escaped his lips, he found it dragging his mind fully away from his foggy, unconscious mind. Shakily he tried to focus it, to make it think. He couldn't remember what had happened to put him in so much pain, but...he stopped momentarily as that mischievous jolt of pain in his head returned. 

He squeezed his eyes tight to try and make it go away, but the action didn't work very well. Eventually the pain did subside, returning to a small, hardly-noticeable throb, but Yugi mentally reminded himself to look out for it. 

_Hah, _he muttered to himself mentally, _you're thinking of headaches as _living things _now? I have to _watch _it? Whatever happened to me, it must've been really bad to make me act like this._

He tried to laugh at that thought, but quickly discovered that laughing only provoked that annoying pain into coming back stronger than ever. He snapped his mouth shut and tried to concentrate on his position instead.

He still had his eyes closed--he hadn't opened them since he had first come back into consciousness--and he didn't really want to open them yet, either. His head still hurt, and he had the idea that light wouldn't improve matters much. Instead, he used other senses to take hold of his position. 

He was laying on his back on something hard and cold. Stone, it felt like, probably concrete. He discovered that one of his hands was clutching the Millennium Puzzle protectively, as if guarding it from thieves.

_I wonder if thieves really _were _the problem, _Yugi mused. _Nah, they would've knocked me out and ran with the Puzzle, not leave it here. Oh well, at least I've still got it. _

He sighed and opened his eyes, blinking momentarily at the sunlight that shone into them. The sun was pretty low in the sky, he noticed--he guessed that in an hour or so the sun would go down and it would be night. _I'd better get home then. Grandpa'll worry. _

Shakily he pulled himself to his feet, assisted by a nearby wall. The movement brought the pain in his head back, and he winced at the feel of it, rubbing his head carefully. 

Standing up, he had a better view of where he was then when he was laying down. It was an alley between two fairly small buildings, and he was near the middle of it. He glanced around slowly, careful not to jar his head too much lest he drag the pain back, and examined it. Just an ordinary alley, with nothing interesting that caught his eye. _So what am I doing here? _

All at once the memories came flooding back. His dream, the strange magical energies his Yami had discovered, the portal...

_Wait._

That portal...what was so important about that portal that he couldn't remember? He sorted through the suddenly-returning memories, searching for the last thing he _could _remember. 

_He dropped like a stone, down to the abyss in the mind that waited for him. He found himself yelling hoarsely for his darker side, and in the next moment found his Yami grasping hold of one of his hands. His other was kneeling on the side of the sudden opening, straining to hold his Light up. _

Yugi blinked. The memory had burst into his thoughts suddenly, filling in one of the holes in his mind. He remembered it now; it had happened in that strange mind realm. He dug deeper into the hidden memories, searching for what had happened after. 

_The shadows, ones very similar to those that had caught him just moments before, were attacking the pharaoh. It was as if they _wanted_ him to let go of his Hakari and let him fall..._

Success! Another memory found, another piece of the puzzle in place. He chuckled at his choice of words and glanced down at his Millenium Puzzle before digging through his mind again.

_Yami was trying his hardest to drive the murderous shadows away, with the assistance of the Millenium Puzzle, but it didn't do him much good. To make matters worse, his hand was loosing it's grip..._

Yugi shuddered. It was all coming back to him now...

But there was still one more hole in his memory to be filled in. Dreading discovering it, yet at the same time eagerly looking for it, he searched his memories one last time.

_Slowly, so agonizingly slowly, his hand slipped from the pharaoh's grasp. Without any more support, he fell, tumbling end over end, towards the portal._

That right, the Hikari thought to himself. _I fell through. But Yami..._

The shock hit him suddenly. His yami...his yami hadn't gone through the portal with him, or at least as far as he knew. Desperately he tried his mind link.

/Yami?/

There was no answer. Nervous, Yugi tried again.

/Yami? Were are you? This _isn't funny _Yami!/

Still no answer. The Hikari was beyond nervous now, and he was growing worried. Hastily he closed his eyes to concentrate; the pain in his head had left without his noticing, and so it was easier for him to do so. 

With no sound at all, Yugi suddenly found himself in one long corridor in his mind. Another mental realm of sorts, and far more important than the other one he had been trapped in. The hall had two doors in it, one on each side. One of them lead to Yugi's own soul room, and it was considerably lighter and cheerier than the room that faced it on the opposite side of the hall. Yami's soul chamber. 

Yugi darted towards his darker spirit's room, but stopped short at the sight that met his eyes. The heavy door, usually closed and locked, stood wide open, as though somebody had left in a hurry. The chambers within were dark and twisted, as usual, but this time there was something that seemed to be missing; a feeling, the feeling of ancient life, courage, and wisdom that usually filled the room. 

"Yami?!" the young Hikari called, growing more worried. As it was before, there was no answer. 

Slowly, as if he expected his Yami to burst out and claim it was all a joke, Yugi concentrated and left the corridor in his mind, returning to his real body. After several minutes of silence, he stroked the Millenium Puzzle once and murmured softly, "Yami's gone."

*****

Yugi had sat for a good fifteen minutes in silence, hidden in the shadows the alley cast on him and hiding him from the views of all the people that passed by on the street not too far away.

His Yami missing had come as a shock to him. He couldn't imagine what had happened to the ancient pharaoh; he had never known anything to injure the spirit, beyond the physical pain his Hikari received, and even then he only felt it when he tried to help his charge. But it seemed now as if something had injured him, or caught him, or...

_Too many possibilities, _Yugi thought to himself. _I could run through them all day and still not even come close. And it doesn't help Yami or myself if I just make lists in my head. I have to do something. _

Coming to such a conclusion, he stood up and walked slowly out of the alley to the street. It was then that he recalled he had no idea where he was. 

He sighed. Today just wasn't a good day for him, he concluded, as he looked around for a recognizable landmark. 

_That was a major understatement._

There--he could see the tip of the KaibaCorp. building in the distance. Not far away, but not exactly close, either. He turned in the building's direction and returned to his slow walk, thinking to himself.

_I wonder what that portal did, _he asked himself quietly. _I know it got rid of my Yami, somehow...I really wish I _knew_ how. I wish I knew more about it, then maybe I'd stop asking myself these questions._

He tried to recall what his yami had said it was. He remembered the spirit saying that it was similar to a Shadow Realm portal, but different at the same time. _As if it leads to somewhere farther away. _Those had been Yami's exact words. 

_Farther away? What's farther away than the Shadow Realm? _

He wasn't sure, but he needed to find out, and soon. Maybe one of the other Millenium spirits would know...

_No, _Yugi thought firmly, _I won't ask Bakura. That cruel spirit would only make life worse for Ryou if I did. _

He'd just have to figure it out some other way, he decided. All he needed was just a little more information, and he could piece it all together. 

The young Hikari was abruptly brought out of his thoughts as he bumped into someone on the streets. It was a lady, he noticed, with red-brown hair and deep green eyes. 

"I'm sorry," he said politely, glancing up at her from his rather short height. 

"Watch where you're going!" She snarled in reply. She turned to meet his violet eyes, glaring daggers at him. And then...

"I-I'm sorry, sir! I didn't mean to...I didn't mean to yell like that! I-I-I apologize!" The woman backed away from him, looking nervous and with unshed tears in her eyes, and shaking hard enough to fall over. She turned and walked away, her movement more like a run. 

Yugi blinked in surprise. _That was weird. _He didn't understand what had just gone on at all; the way that woman had been acting, one would think he was a bully. But being the victim of the school bullies for so long, he himself would never put others in that position. 

So what had made that lady so afraid? 

He increased the speed of his walk a little more; this was starting to creep him out. He was almost halfway to the KibaCorp. building, and was coming into more familiar areas. 

Not having to spend all his time trying to figure out where he was, Yugi found himself observing the people around him. They were _all _acting strange as he went by. He received angry stares from the people on the other sides of the streets, and frightened glances from those on his side. When he walked, almost all of the people skirted around him by a good couple of feet. Nobody talked to him willingly; when he stopped one person to ask what was going on, the man gave a frightened squeak and darted away, as though he expected Yugi to try and hurt him. 

The Hikari sighed and slowly accepted the way people were acting around him. He didn't like it, of course--he was frightening all these people out of their minds--but he couldn't do anything about it. 

_That portal must've done something weird to me, _he thought to himself. _Now I want to figure it out more than ever. _

Yugi knew where he was by now, and had turned in the direction of the Game Shop to return home. People continued to stare at him with a mix of anger, surprise, and fear, making him more nervous than before. Eventually, the boy took to walking through the alleys when he could. Sometimes they were a shortcut, while sometimes they only lengthened his route home, but it didn't matter to him--there were hardly any people in the alleys, and therefore there was nobody to stare at him. 

He was on a regular street, almost near his home, when he saw a person from school. Not exactly a friend, but somebody he would on occasion talk to during one of his classes. Filled with relief at seeing a friendly face, he ran forward, calling the kid's name. 

The fellow student turned and stared with surprise at seeing Yugi running towards him, waving and yelling. With a startled yelp, he turned and ran full out, soon outdistancing Yugi with his longer legs.

Yugi stopped short, surprised and a bit hurt. Even people he _knew _were scared of him? He sighed, turned, and slipped into another alley, walking towards the Game Shop. He was beginning to hate the portal that had caused this whole mess for him. His yami gone, everyone scared of him...he didn't like it at all.

He was so caught up in his thoughts, he didn't notice the two heavily muscled men ahead of him in the alley. They were dressed in black from head to foot--shirt, jacket, pants, shoes, gloves. Both were staring at Yugi, but not like the other people on the street had--their faces held expressions of hatred and suspicion. The first one nodded to the second, and they moved forward skillfully, silently. 

Yugi found himself suddenly caught in a strong grasp, arms pinned to his sides and toes dangling off the ground from his rather short height. He struggled, squirming and fighting as hard as possible, and wanting desperately to call Yami for help, when a knife blade was pressed to his throat. He stopped moving quite suddenly, gulping at the sharp twinge of pain at his neck. 

"Good. Don't move," a voice behind him hissed. 

Yugi obeyed, for his life, but could not resist asking quietly, "What do you want? Why are you doing this?"

The second man dressed in black answered calmly. "It's our job to catch those from the Opposition."

The Hikari blinked. "The _what?_"

The man scowled. "Don't play stupid with me. I don't have time for it."

Yugi sighed. "But I don't under-"

"Shut up!" The man roared. The knife that was at his throat--held by a second man, Yugi guessed--quivered and bit into his skin a little, leaving a small nick in it, and allowing a tiny trickle of blood to seep out. Just a pin-prick to the boy; he ignored it. 

"I know that many of those fools out there--" The first man jerked his thumb towards the alley opening, no doubt signifying all the people on the streets, "--think you're the Great Leader. I'm not that stupid. I can see the difference. I don't know how you survived, but that's really not my area. Point is, the only way you could've lived is by getting help from the Opposition, and that means you're with'em. So," the man said, calm once more, and even with a small, sly grin, " it's my job to take you to the prison."

Yugi blinked in surprise. "What?!"

The man laughed. "Yeah, the game is up. We'll get all the answers about the Opposition soon enough, and the Great Leader will be able to continue his plans in peace."

"But I--"

"Shut _up_, kid," the man said, anger glittering in his eyes. "I may have orders to take you to the traitor's prison, but the orders said nothing about bringing you in _unharmed._"

Wide-eyed, Yugi stared up at his capturer in surprise. He wouldn't...the boy found himself wishing harder than ever that Yami was there. 

"But be _quiet,_" the man continued, "and maybe I'll be nice and not do anything to you."

Yugi sighed. He really didn't want to give in to these men, but it was the only way that he could stay unharmed. If he was to figure out anything about why these people were acting this way, he'd have to stay in one piece. 

Nodding quietly, the Hikari allowed the men to shove him in front of themselves, forcing him to walk where they directed, leading him on to wherever it was they wanted to take him. 

It was an uneventful trip, for the most part. His capturers lead him through a maze of alleys, not wanting to be seen by the people who traveled the streets. Everything was dark and shadowy within the alleys, leaving Yugi with a foreboding sense that churned his stomach uneasily. When he slowed down too much, the men would shove him forward roughly, not caring if he got injured or not. They were in a hurry, Yugi noticed quietly; they wanted to get rid of him as quick as possible. 

Finally, they stopped in front of a large building, which sent an icy tremor up the young Hikari's back. The building was dark and dull, but it looked strong and ready to take on several dangerous beatings. 

The men shoved him through the doorway and inside, shutting the door with a loud clang. To Yugi it felt like he was being sealed inside, never to come out. They lead him down several plain corridors, all devoid of life, each with only a few dim lights to show the way. 

The boy found it a shock when he turned the corner the men directed him to and found a third man, also clothed entirely in black. He stared at the first two quietly, then spoke.

"Got another?" He sounded bored.

"Yup." It was the first of Yugi's two capturers, the one who had done all the talking. "An imposter, or maybe the real thing. Has to be with the Opposition."

"Good." The third man sounded relieved. "They're getting smarter, avoiding our traps and the like. The Great Leader will start to get angry with us if we don't catch more of'em." Yugi was almost sure he could catch a nervous sound in the man's voice. He even shook visibly, if only for a second. "And you know how he is when he's angry..."

The other two men nodded silently. 

"On the other hand," the third man continued, "we caught one of their strongest members today. In there." He jerked his head in the direction of a door--a cell. What was startling about this particular cell was that, while most simply had bars to keep their captives locked in, this cell was completely sealed off by a solid steel door. "Dangerous one, he is," the man finished. "Would've gotten out of a regular cell with no problems." 

_Who could be dangerous enough to be put in there? _Yugi thought to himself. 

"Good," the first man muttered. "At least you caught him. Which one is he?"

The third man grinned. "Traitor."

Both the men behind the young Hikari started with surprise. "You _caught _him? Amazing! The Great Leader will reward you beyond your dreams!" There was a twinge of jealousy in the voice, but it was covered up quickly. 

"I know." The third man was still grinning.

The first man sighed. "It'd be great to keep talking, but we've gotta get back out on the job. Where do you want this one?" He shoved Yugi forward unceremoniously. 

The third man laughed. "Throw him in with Traitor," he said, chuckling, "and we'll see if they tear each other apart. You _know _how much the two hate each other."

The first man agreed, dragging Yugi towards the steel-door cell. Very carefully, the man unlocked it, shoving the Hikari in quickly and slamming the door shut. 

"See ya, imposter!" came the muffled yell from the other side of the door. 

Yugi stood still, finding himself in a nearly pitch black cell. The only light came from a dim lamp in one corner. A cot sat on one side of the room, but other than that the cell was bare. 

Whirling, the boy turned back to the steel door and pounded on it with his fists. "Let me out! You have no right to leave me in here! Let me out, please! PLEASE!"

The only answer he received was laughter from the other side of the steel door.

The Hikari banged on the door until his fists hurt, but still nothing happened. His pleas to be released went unanswered. He quieted, staring at the steel door in shock.

How had he let this happen? And what _had _that portal done to him?

He was broken from his thoughts by a ragged gasp behind him. Spinning around, Yugi found himself staring at a young teen on the ground. 

It was a boy, probably not more than sixteen. He was sprawled on the ground, as if he had collapsed there and didn't have the strength to get up. He wore a gray T-shirt with a light jacket, black in color, over it, and dark blue jeans. The boy's eyes were clamped shut, almost in pain, and sweat ran down from his forehead. His shirt and jacket were soaked in sweat as well; Yugi thought the boy was dangerously ill because of it. 

The boy's most noticeable features, however, stunned Yugi beyond what he would have thought possible for his mind to comprehend. The boy's hair was silvery-white...that, and there was a golden ring, almost like a dream-catcher, hanging from a leather cord around his neck. 

Bakura.

*****

HCG: *pant* Okay, I've just spent the past three and a half hours writing this....so I'll just take a break now, yes?

Karma: You deserve it.

HCG: ^_^ Why thank you. Did you like this chapter?

Karma: Yup.

HCG: And how about you, Slash?

Slash: It's...weird.

HCG: It's supposed to be. 

Slash: Oh...okay then. I liked it!

HCG: *pats Slash on the head* Good. Now for the readers...yeah, I know this is a little weird so far, and you've probably got tons of questions, yes? Well, don't worry, next chapter I'll answer most of them. Just hang in there! 

Slash: So when'll you put your next chapter up?

HCG: Probably sometime next weekend. I don't have access to the internet over weekdays, but I'll write up at least one more chapter during that time. 

Slash: ^_^ Goody, more weird stuff. 

HCG: *grumble*

Karma: While you wait for another chapter...go review this one, please? HCG would me most grateful...and it makes her get to her writing faster!

__


	3. Explanations

HCG: ^_^ Hey all! I'm back and ready to write a brand new chapter for this story. Got a nice big writing mood and tons of free time, and adding those together equals one thing: Guardian writing!

Karma: Yay!

HCG: And furthermore, considering that Bakura popped in last chapter, he's here as a guest to see Chapter three!...and of course, considering that he's got the Millennium Ring with him, his Yami's here too. 

Ryou: Hi!

Bakura: *evil grin*

HCG: Nice to have you guys here! Oh, 'n did I ever tell you guys your my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh characters?

Ryou: No...

HCG: Well, you are, you're tied with Kaiba as my favorite characters in the show. Although I think I like Yami Bakura more at this point...

Ryou: *frown*

Bakura: Heh, no wonder. I'm the best out of the both of us. 

Karma: But she likes me the best, being her own character. ^_~

Slash: *behind Karma* *nods*

Ryou: *stares at Karma* Why is it I'm talking to a four foot tall lizard and an almost equally tall anteater?

Karma: *growl*

Bakura: *stares at Slash's looong metal claws* You like sharp, dangerously pointy objects?

Slash: Hell yes! I've got a ton of them, lemme show you.

Bakura: O_O ooooooooooh! Purdy! *wanders off with Slash towards a chest of sharp dangerous objects*

HCG: ¬_¬;; Okay, so the guests are getting out of hand. Let's get to the story, shall we?

Ryou: *nods* I'll take care of the disclaimer...Guardian doesn't own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh characters, although Slash and Karma belong to her. 

HCG: Thanks, Ryou!

Notes: 

I think we know by now...Yugi is Yugi, the spirit is Yami

For Bakura: Ryou is the lighter side, while Bakura is the yami

__

italics are thoughts or memories/dreams

Shadow Turned Light

Chapter 3: Explanations

"Ryou!" Yugi yelled in worried surprise, darting forward to the boy laying on the floor of the prison cell they shared. He knelt down beside his friend, not sure what to do, not even sure what was wrong, but wanting desperately to help.

Ryou lay on the floor in the center of the cell, oblivious to his friend's call. He was sweating heavily, droplets running down his face and mingling with long-dried tears. His breathing was labored, as if he had to force his lungs to unwillingly accept air, and when he exhaled it came out in short, pain-filled gasps. His eyes were clamped shut, fighting obvious pain, and his fists were clenching and unclenching slowly. 

Nervous, Yugi placed a hand on his friend's forehead. The boy was burning hot, as if he had a fever too high for one to survive. _What is wrong with him?_

"Ryou?" The young Hikari whispered quietly. He hoped beyond all thinking that the boy could hear him. There was no answer; the boy only continued to breath in ragged gasps. 

_What _happened_ to him? He's so ill...who could have done this? Was it those guards? _He doubted it. The men out there had acted afraid of the person they had captured--"Traitor" they had called him; Yugi wondered momentarily why--and they probably thought that Ryou was still dangerous. _No, there's only one person that could have done this. Bakura. _

"Ryou! Come on, answer me!" Yugi pleaded, still kneeling beside his friend. 

This time, Ryou did respond, although weakly. At Yugi's shout, his eyes snapped open and he grasped at one of the other boy's hands, shaking. He didn't seem to recognize that the other Hikari was there at all, despite the fact that he was clinging to Yugi's hands as if he would fall if he let go. His eyes were wide, yet unseeing, and somewhat dim, though they flickered constantly as if searching for something. 

Slowly, Ryou spoke, his voice pitiful and small-sounding. "Please...help me...it hurts...so much, it hurts...the nightmares...the memories...they're real! Make them stop, please, make them go away, make them stop hurting me! _They're killing me! Please!_" Each word sounded as if it had to be fought to be said, as if he was killing himself just to speak. 

Yugi was surprised at the force with which Ryou clung to his hand, at the words that escaped the boy's throat. _What's wrong with him?! He's delirious, that much I know...could his Yami do _this _to him? I'm not so sure, now..._he found his own voice and spoke, trying to comfort the sick, terrified hikari beside him.

"It's okay...I'll help you if I can. I'll try to figure out what's wrong, and--"

He stopped suddenly; Ryou had just turned his head towards the voice, towards Yugi. For a brief instant, there was a flicker of life in the tortured boy's deep brown eyes, of recognition. "Yu...gi?"

"Yeah, it's me, Ryou, I'll help you any way I can, I promise. I'll--"

Ryou was shaking harder now, closing his eyes for a brief few moments. He was even more terrified than before, recognizing the person sitting next to him. Again, he forced words past his dry throat, releasing them in raspy, pain-filled sounds. 

"Nooo...not again...don't bring them back...please don't...I can't stand these memories anymore...these nightmares...darkness eternal...please, leave me alone...it hurts so much, don't cause more pain..._please..._"

Yugi was shocked. Ryou thought _he _was going to hurt him? He might have blamed it on the silver-haired boy's delirious state, but he had the feeling that the other hikari was being completely serious. _What is going on? What _happened _to me when I went through that portal?_

"I'm not going to hurt you, Ryou, and you know that." Gently, the young Hikari bent forward to help his friend, but it only sent the boy into more fright. 

"No...please, go away! I can't take this anymore...it hurts so much...the pain...the memories...it's agony...please, go away!" The voice reached new heights, sounding almost desperate. "Yami, please, help me! He's here...he won't leave...I can't take this, it hurts!"

Yugi blinked in surprise. Ryou really was scared of him...and he was calling Yami? 

The ring resting gently on Ryou's chest glowed brightly, and suddenly Yugi understood. _Not my yami. His. _He frowned at the Millennium Ring, which was becoming brighter. _But Ryou's terrified of Bakura. Why would he call him for help? _

The Hikari's thoughts were abruptly brought to an end as the Millennium Ring flashed once. Ryou went limp for a few seconds, than suddenly sat up straight, glaring at the other boy in the room with anger and hatred burning in his eyes. 

But of course, it wasn't really Ryou. It was his yami, Bakura, in possession of Ryou's body, controlling it as easily as if it were his own.

He was no longer sweating, or breathing hard; apparently whatever was wrong with Ryou had no effect on his darker spirit. He stood up, still glaring daggers at Yugi as he loomed over him. 

The young Hikari felt as if he had been struck by a thunderbolt, so quickly Bakura moved. The ancient tomb robber had grasped Yugi by his collar, slammed him up against the wall and pinned him there, and placed one hand around his neck so efficiently that the boy had to stop and replay what had just happened over in his head before he understood. 

The darker spirit began closing his hand around Yugi's neck, cutting off the boy's air. He was speaking harshly as he did so, practically growling each word he spoke. 

"You _dare _to come near my Hikari, do you?! I'll make you pay. You'll never cause him any more pain than what he has do deal with now; you won't be seeing this day end and another begin. I'll kill you!"

Yugi choked, struggling against Bakura's firm grip and succeeding in only tightening it. He was expecting the thief to begin to gloat at any minute now, trying to remove the Puzzle from around his neck. _Yami, I really wish you were here._

Bakura had still been talking, voice fueled by anger, words emphasizing his hatred. Suddenly, however, he halted in mid-sentence and hissed, "_Yugi?_"

It came as a surprise to the Hikari when the pressure around his neck was suddenly removed, and he was able to drop to his knees to rest. Hacking and coughing, he looked upward at the darker spirit in shock. After several seconds, he spoke. 

"You're...you're not going to try and steal my Puzzle?"

Bakura grimaced, but his anger still showed clearly through the expression. "Where'd you get such a fool idea? I'd never attempt to steal that filthy Millennium Puzzle for all the riches in Egypt."

Startled, Yugi whipped his eyes open, staring at the ancient spirit above him in obvious surprise. "You..._what?!_" He sputtered, confused. 

"You heard me. I'd never steal that thing if you forced me to." The tomb robber narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You know that."

"I--I--" he stopped trying to find a reply; he was at loss as to what to say. He finally sighed, dropped his head, and slowly stood up.

Bakura continued, still watching Yugi with a watchful and suspicious eye. He looked calm, but it was only too obvious that he was ready to fight at a moment's notice. "Enough. I don't know what trick you're trying to pull, _pharaoh, _but don't expect me to fall into your trap. Even you ought to know that it is not honorable to imitate a dead spirit, even if it _was _the soul of your Hikari. It will bring you no victory, I can assure you."

Yugi blinked in surprise. "Pharaoh? I'm not a pharaoh; that's Yami, and I can't find him anywhere. I'm not an imitation or whatever it is you just said, I swear!" 

The ancient thief only shook his head. "He does not deserve this," he said quietly. "You will fail for what you have attempted to do." His eyes became darker, his tone more murderous; it was plain he was about to attack what he took for a trick of Yami's. He took a step forward, watching the boy across from him silently, his look cold and calculating. 

Yugi sighed. "You don't believe me. What did that portal _do _to me?"

To the boy's shock, the darker spirit across from him stopped pacing forward. He cocked his head to the side quizzically, murmuring, "Portal?"

The young Hikari blinked. "Yeah, a portal. A portal Yami thinks lead somewhere farther than the Shadow Realm. Maybe he was right...maybe this isn't all me."

Bakura was looking at Yugi thoughtfully now, as if he wasn't sure what to make of the boy. "A portal...to somewhere farther than the Shadow Realm?" The white-haired boy blinked, shook his head, and sat down on the cot. Very seriously, he stared straight at Yugi's violet eyes and said calmly, "I think you had better tell me everything concerning this."

"I...I'm not so sure that's a good idea," the Hikari said nervously. _Can I trust him? He's tried to kill me before!_

"Tell me everything," the tomb robber repeated, eyes staring unblinkingly at Yugi.

The boy sighed. Could he trust this spirit? He _had _been on the opposing side of many of his problems before, and had been known to be sly and never to be believed. However...he hadn't tried to harm Yugi this time, and he was even talking quietly and calmly to the boy. And hadn't he rushed to defend his aibou earlier? 

There was no mistaking it, Yugi decided. He'd have to trust Bakura. Besides, the ancient spirits knew far more of the magic encased within the Millennium items; perhaps the thief in the Ring would have an answer for Yugi as to what was going on. 

So, slowly and carefully so as to not leave anything out, Yugi related his tale to the listening dark spirit across from him. He started with the dream, moving on to Yami's discovery of the strange portal, on to his being pulled through and the results of the event. Bakura said nothing throughout the entire tale, but the young Hikari noticed that he flinched angrily every time Yami was mentioned. 

Silence followed when Yugi finished speaking. The boy leaned against the wall and uncomfortably waited for the silence to be broken by the tomb robber sitting on the opposite side of the cell. 

After several minutes of the silence, Bakura shifted and muttered a few words: "The theory of the other Realms."

"What?" Yugi asked, frowning. 

"The theory of the other Realms," the Ring-spirit repeated. "I don't know much about it, but I do know enough to get by. I studied it at one point, but I passed it off as nothing more than a story; I didn't even consider that it could be real."

"Well, what is it?" the Hikari asked, becoming interested. 

"An idea, really, nothing more than a theory. It stated that there is not one universe in the world, but many, and that each universe is a bit different from the next. One person exists in all of the Realms, but in each Realm the person would be slightly different. Decisions made by a person in one Realm may be made in the exact opposite way in another, or maybe just a bit differently, and so on. You must have been pulled through into this Realm, a reflection of your own Realm."

"But...if there are many universes, how did I get pulled into this one of all Realms?" Yugi asked, thinking.

"The theory claims that all universes are on a different level," Bakura said slowly. "Some are stronger than others, while some are faded and weak, as if they will soon cease to exist. This Realm must have been strong enough to summon you here when you broke the barrier of the universes."

"I wonder..." Yugi said softly, staring at the other boy in thought. _The Bakura here seems almost opposite to the one I know...in my Realm, I guess I should say. Maybe that has something to do with it..._

"What is it?" The thief asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Nothing," Yugi said slowly. "It's nothing." 

Again, silence overpowered, and the two sat buried in their own thoughts. Bakura seemed to be arguing with himself, the Hikari noted; he wondered why, but he supposed he would get answers soon.

"Odd," the darker spirit suddenly murmured. "that you would be pulled through into our Realm at this time of all times..." he sighed and shook his head, making his long white hair ruffle about his shoulders slightly. "But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter...yet."

Yugi blinked, then asked tentatively, "Do you mind if I ask a few questions? About your Realm, I mean?"

"No. You need the answers." Bakura shook his head again, as if clearing it of his earlier thoughts. "I don't know what your Realm is like, but this one is too dangerous for you to survive in without answers." He sat back on the cot, muttering quietly. "But first..."

The Millennium Ring around his neck glowed brightly again; Bakura slumped, going limp, and laid on the cot. Instantly he began to sweat again, breathing hard, with eyes clamped shut. 

_Ryou's back, _Yugi thought to himself.

The Ring glowed again, and slowly a shape began to take form next to the cot. At first it was transparent, but it grew steadily more solid until it was an exact physical replica of Ryou's appearance. No doubt it was Bakura, temporarily separated from his hikari. 

Ryou had begun to moan again; he was plainly terrified, and Yugi's presence didn't seem to help matters much. His breathing became more ragged, his hands clenched so hard the prints of his nails were left in his palm. 

Bakura moved towards his sick hikari. At first, Yugi thought he was going to hurt the feverish boy in another abusive act; he was prepared to run forward and try to stop it, if he had to. But the spirit only bent down gently beside his lighter side's head and whispered soothingly, as a parent would to a frightened child. 

"It's okay...Yugi is on our side...he won't hurt you, I'd never let him. You know I'll always be here to protect you."

The boy was stunned as he watched the tomb robber continue his gentle talk for several minutes. Gradually, Ryou's terrified moans faded away, replaced with only his ragged breathing. He had fallen into a deep sleep; whether it was peaceful or not, the younger Hikari couldn't say, but he seemed more at rest than he had before.

Bakura stood up quietly, so as not to disturb his slumbering Light, and stood protectively by the boy's head. He watched Yugi warily, as if he still didn't trust the boy--which he probably didn't, Yugi decided. 

He had also come to decide upon which question to ask first. "What...what happened to him?" He pointed at the feverish Ryou, worry on his face. 

"What happened to him?" Bakura said slowly, almost thoughtfully--but the anger in his voice was only too easy to place. "You happened to him. Or, more precisely, your Yami did."

"What?!" The Hikari gasped. Yami would never hurt anybody, of that he was sure. "I...don't understand. I'm sorry..." He wasn't sure if he was apologizing for his misunderstanding, or Ryou's condition.

"It is of no matter. I suppose this gives me the idea of how to explain everything to you. I will start at the beginning." The spirit sighed, as if fatigued. "You may want to sit down. The story is a long one, and I'm afraid that most of it is rather unhappy."

Yugi nodded quietly, sitting down cross-legged with his back to the wall. Something in the back of his mind told him not to leave himself in such a vulnerable position to the ancient thief, but he shrugged it off. He had the feeling he could trust _this _Bakura, especially after seeing how he acted towards his hikari. Even so, the boy clutched his Millennium Puzzle reflexively as he stared up at the dark spirit across from him. 

Bakura sat down on the edge of the cot carefully and began to speak, saying each word as if he had to drag the memories that went with them from too far back in his mind to reach. He stroked the Millennium Ring absent-mindedly while he talked, as if it helped him concentrate and recover the memories. 

"I suppose it all started out fine enough, a good couple of years ago. You, or the you in this Realm at any rate, had discovered the magic deep within your Millennium Puzzle, and you had Yami to guide you. You and your friends were well known for your dueling skills, and were invited to several tournaments. Ryou and I would sometimes come along, but for the most part we were loners--I even more than he, for I would stay in the Ring for a vast majority of the time. Seto Kaiba's company was at it's prime, and was becoming more involved in the Duel Monsters game--I heard somewhere that he had been planning holographic generators to use, to spark more excitement in the game."

"He hasn't built them here?" Yugi interrupted, but he quickly fell back into silence at Bakura's frown. 

"It _started _fine, but things were not to stay that way. We had problems with the Shadow Realm roughly three years ago; it was feeding off the power of the Millennium items and growing stronger. You attempted to stop it--you always were too noble for your own good--and your soul was captured. Yami was desperate to save you; he felt he had failed in his self-appointed task as your guardian. He requested the help of the other Millennium item users, myself included. Yami and I were...not on the best of terms, I guess one could say...but I was not so bad as to leave a helpless soul in the Shadow Realm. I volunteered my services to try and help find you. I was the only one, in fact.

"We journeyed to the Shadow Realm and spent quite a bit of time searching for your spirit. Too much time. Yami and I's minds were weakened from the stress of supporting our own lives within the Realm; mine was doublely so from having to protect Ryou as well. It seemed a hopeless search, but it proved quite the opposite. You were found, not by me, but by your Yami. 

"You were in a terrible condition when he finally discovered you. You were weakened so much that your mind should have been broken in two. In such a state, only powerful magic could have saved you; Yami had no such magic, being weakened from his stay in the Shadow Realm. But he was determined not to loose you. Against all odds, he summoned an extraordinary amount of magic--some of it fueled by the very material of his soul--and fought off the bonds on your mind. He was able to free you and return you to the True Realm, where you recovered slowly. 

"But the effects of his effort to save you were strong, too strong. When Yami rescued you, he weakened himself by using so much magic to save you. Weakening himself made him vulnerable to the Shadow Realm; With such a vulnerability open to it, the shadows closed in. They embedded themselves in the core of the Millennium Puzzle, tainting it with evil. They wrapped themselves around the magic encased in the Puzzle, and within that magic was something even stronger--the spirit of the pharaoh. Slowly, they began to absorb the magic of the Item, twisting it into something unpure, something foul. And with the magic's mutation came the Pharaoh's slow change as well.

"None of us noticed, at first. The darkness that enveloped the Puzzle and it's magic was unseen, even to those of us with Millennium items. We did notice that Yami started to act differently--the shadows forcing their way into his soul were the cause--but we didn't think much of it. During a duel, he may have sounded more angry, more sarcastic, but that was understandable, considering his years in the Puzzle. 

"Eventually, though, the change came to an entirely new level. Yami became more violent, more cold-hearted. He never harmed you, or your friends for that matter, but it was noticeable just the same. Especially for me; the Pharaoh has never quite trusted me, nor I him. 

"I began to notice the change first. I told the others; they laughed the idea off, but watched Yami closely after that. Soon enough, they were noticing the same things as I. Whenever we confronted Yami about them, he seemed angry that we would accuse him of such a thing. It seemed as if he never exactly knew what he was doing. 

"We shrugged off the idea and left the Pharaoh to himself. We were all fools." Bakura shook his head, breaking in the story for the first time since Yugi's interruption. "All fools. If we had tried to do something, none of the later events would have happened."

"Everybody makes mistakes," Yugi said gently. "You couldn't have expected anything bad to happen." _All the same, though, it's strange to think of Yami acting that way. _

"Oh, but I _did _expect something bad to happen," the tomb robber said bitterly. "Perhaps not exactly what, but I knew something was wrong with him. But I am going off-track. I will continue the story.

"Yami continued acting strangely for nearly a year. It always got worse, the way he acted; in the later months he seemed to have times of madness, in which he unknowingly possessed you and unleashed huge quantities of his magic. There are sites where destruction is...quite obvious...and is evidence of such times. And still we did nothing. 

"And then..." Bakura sighed, glancing uneasily at Yugi before continuing. "Nearly two years ago, the final stage of this...this Shadow Madness...came to pass. It was...not pleasant. That is the nicest way to describe it.

"You had been walking home late from school. It was nearly sunset; I still don't know why you stayed so late, but I wish you hadn't. It was the end...and the beginning." He shook his head. "Talking in riddles again. I should just tell the story. But I dread it, and fear it." 

Yugi was starting to fear what was coming as well; there was a foreboding feeling growing in his heart that he couldn't shake off, no matter how hard he tried. 

The tomb robber continued. "You were heading home, back to the Game Shop, when it happened. There was a thief, just a common street mugger with no sense whatsoever." There was a disdainful snort before he continued. "He had his eyes on the Millennium Puzzle. The size and golden color must have grabbed his attention. He followed you for a few streets before coming up to attack. You played it smart and ran into the nearest building you could get to." Seeing the question on Yugi's face, he said calmly, "You most of all knew of Yami's madness; you also knew it was pointless to call on him for help. You had to help yourself. 

"The thief didn't leave you alone, however. He followed you, into what you soon discovered was an empty building. Still focused on your Puzzle, he moved forward to finish up his planned attack. You took quite a beating--you had no time to focus the power from the Millennium Puzzle--but that wasn't what ended it. Oh, no, far from it." Bakura closed his eyes and sighed deeply, as if already regretting what he was about to say. 

"Your Yami sensed your pain and separated himself from you in an attempt to help. It is my belief that at that point he was still sane. But the Shadow energies lodged within his soul soon took over, and left him dangerous and wild. He gathered the energies of the Puzzle together--the dark Shadow energy among it--and released such an attack that the very building itself began to crumble. The walls buckled outward and collapsed, sending the debris flying through the air like rain. The ceiling cracked and dropped much of itself on top of you, your Yami, and the thief. When it all cleared, half the building had been destroyed, sagging on it's side as if some giant had tried to push it over and only half-succeeded. Luckily, it was a small building, or far more damage would have been done. 

"As it was, there was still no way you _or _the thief could have escaped unharmed. Your Yami was a different story; he had created a shield for himself with the remaining magic that the Puzzle possessed, and had not been touched by even a speck of dust from the building's collapse. 

"He saw you laying half-covered by the rubble. You had been injured from the debris falling on you so heavily, but you could have survived. But Yami's attack had done more harm than good, including what happened to you. His attack had nearly destroyed you. It was only because you had the Puzzle that you even survived such a mass discharge of magical energies. Adding the two problems together, things did not look good for you. But with help, you could have survived...

"Your Yami watched you struggling to even breathe, injured so badly that even the mute would scream. He watched you, but did nothing. Nothing, that is, except to steal your remaining energy, your remaining _life, _and use it to reinforce his solid, physical body. To make it permanent. Once he had finished the theft of your very spirit, he turned and left you there without a second glance. The Madness was complete."

Bakura was talking slower now, reluctant to say what had come so near. He forced himself on, voice sounding as if it was dry and gravely. "An ambulance arrived at the scene--someone had seen you and the thief go into the building--and you were dug out. The thief was brought to the hospital, but his injuries were so severe he died within a few days. Not before I got the answers out of him, though," he said cruelly. For a brief second, there was a flash of the Bakura that Yugi knew in his eyes, but it faded away almost instantly. 

The Hikari swallowed nervously before asking the question he dreaded. "And....and what happened to me?"

The tomb robber stared at him silently, respectfully, before saying quietly, "You didn't even make it to the ambulance. You were dead before they dug you out of the rubble."

Yugi gasped in shock; the news was sudden, and the emotions received were almost incomprehensible. "What?!" 

Bakura nodded. "Yes. It was tragic news for all of us."

"But Yami would _never _do that to me!" Yugi almost shrieked. He couldn't believe that the ancient pharaoh could be so cold-hearted, so...so evil. 

"Recall that you are in a much different dimension than the one you are familiar with," the tomb robber said, somewhat harshly. "The rules of life are much different here."

"R-right..." the Hikari muttered slowly. His mind seemed to stand still. _So I'm dead here, _he thought to himself. The thought was strange, as if it didn't fit into place quite right. 

"I will continue," Bakura said quietly, after several minutes had passed. However harshly he may have talked, he understood the shock of the situation. At least that was good. 

"After your death, the way of life quickly changed. Your Yami gained more power, more unstoppable might. His Madness grew until the point where his few precious seconds of sanity were few and far between. He grew into a leader, ruling much of the land around here. Any who opposed him were crushed, either by his own magic or the forces and allies that quickly turned to him for protection and a portion of his power. 

"It became clear to your friends and I that we had to stop the ancient pharaoh somehow. We were against forceful means of stopping you if we could; we weren't sure how much of Yami's soul was really him, and we were afraid we might hurt him. We decided to take turns, to see if we could somehow persuade him that what he was doing was wrong. Tea agreed to go first, to see if she could talk some sense into the spirit.

"Tea approached him cautiously, but defiantly at the same time. She met him in his office; I went with her, to provide magical protection if it was needed. She tried to talk to him, to make him see the light. It nearly worked, I could see that he wanted desperately to cling to her words of kindness and heart, of friendship. But the Shadows wrapping his soul burrowed deeper, snapping another string in his mind. He went berserk; I was only just able to get Tea out of there in time. Even so, she will never get rid of some of the scars she received." Bakura narrowed his eyes, re-living the memory as he spoke of it. 

"It was then that I knew he could not be simply talked out of his position. Force would indeed be needed. Magic would have to be used to try and get rid of the threat that he was becoming; the only magic strong enough to counter a Millennium Item's magic is the energy of another Millennium Item. My Ring alone would not have been powerful enough to win against the Puzzle. Instead, I began to seek out the holders of other Millennium Items. I found one and asked for his help; he willingly agreed to assist me, and we began our preparation for the challenge ahead of us. 

"Sneaking into the building that Yami used was not a problem. We easily made it to his main rooms, encountering him almost immediately. What happened there would be most simply described as a Shadow Duel, though it was far more complex than even those. Two Millennium Items against one--and surprisingly enough, we were loosing against Yami. The Shadow Madness had strengthened him greatly. 

"Ryou had been watching the whole encounter, of course," Bakura said sadly. "He saw how Yami was acting and begged to be allowed to try and 'read his soul,' as he so eloquently put it. Of course, the Ring can read souls, but Ryou seems to understand how a person _is _by looking at them. I agreed to allow him to try; at the time I had thought it might have given us an advantage. Fool that I was," he spat, glancing down at his sleeping hikari. 

"What happened?" Yugi asked quietly. 

"Ryou took control of his body, but we had hardly switched when that accursed Yami of yours unleashed his magical attack--his final attack. It was more powerful than I would have thought possible...and more deadly. It was like the mind crushing technique he so often used, but at least ten times stronger, and unchecked in all it's power. It was aimed at Ryou and I, sharing one body, and at my companion Millennium owner. 

"Ryou received nearly the full force of the blow. His mind was shattered by that attack, broken into a thousand fragile pieces that can never be recovered and put back together. And then, as if it couldn't be worse for him, his mind was plagued with memories--nightmares, really--of evil, and hate, and terror." He glanced once again at Ryou, sleeping on the cot. "That is what happened to him, why he is like this. He is an empty, lost shell now. I have tried hundreds of times to find his mind, to help it recover, but I cannot. I always fail. He lives in fear, never seeing the good in life, when his mind is whole enough to see and understand at all."

Yugi was shocked. "I--I'm sorry...I really am, that's...that's horrible..." he stammered. Worry creased on his face as he stared at Ryou with new understanding, new sorrow.

"I thank you," Bakura said sadly, before returning to his story.

"Ryou took most of the blast. I managed to force what was left of his mind out of the way to take the rest of the attack. I, too, was effected, though not in nearly the same way. I have some memories of this life, with Ryou, that are empty, and no longer there. But it is of no matter. 

"The other Millennium user was injured as well, though not as bad as Ryou. We both knew fighting on was pointless; Yami was too strong. We managed to escape, though narrowly.

"Months later, the Opposition was formed. It is a resistance group, dedicated to ending Yami's reign of terror. They are strong and determined, fighting on even when the odds are against them. I have joined their ranks," he said calmly. "I am one of their top members, and the Millennium Ring gives them considerable advantages. I am often used to spy and steal, as my talents are best suited to it." The spirit grinned. "The idiot mortals out there call me Traitor...they think that owning a Millennium Item and going against Yami means I betrayed him."

Yugi nodded. "I knew that already...they mentioned you a few times out there. They seemed pretty excited that they caught you."

"There is a first time for everything," Bakura said dryly, "even being caught. And I won't be here for long, either."

Yugi blinked, but asked another question. "What happened to my friends? Joey, Tristen, Tea?"

Bakura shrugged. "Most have gone their separate ways," the spirit said slowly. "Joey and Tristen joined the Opposition on your behalf. Most people have a reason worth fighting, a person to fight for. Tristen died on one of the missions, at Yami's hands, but his death brought us quite a bit of valuable information that we needed. He did not sacrifice himself in vain."

The shock pounded on Yugi's head like a sledgehammer. So this was how this world was; he was dead, as was Tristen, and Ryou was lost in his own tortured mind. All at the hands of his Yami. 

Bakura left him alone, understanding once again the shock of the situation. All Yugi could do was sit, grasping his Puzzle with hands so tight the corners dug into his flesh, staring at the floor in silence. It was too much shock for him to bear at once. 

After nearly a half hour, the tomb robber spoke again. "I cannot be sure you are telling the truth," he said quietly. "About the portal."

"What?!" Yugi yelped. "I thought....I thought you _did _believe me!"

"Mostly," Bakura replied. "But there is only one way to be sure. Your Millennium Puzzle should hold pure magic, if it is from another Realm. It would not be tainted as it is here. If you will allow me to test it..."

Yugi stared at the thief across from himself and nodded slowly. He removed the Puzzle from around his neck and nervously held it out to the spirit. He didn't want to--his memories of the Bakura of _his _Realm were fresh in his mind--but he had to trust the spirit, or he'd never survive here. 

Just as slowly, Bakura reached his hand out and touched his fingertips to the eye carved in the front of the Puzzle. There was a small flash, and the thief withdrew his hands in amazement. Yugi replaced the Puzzle around his neck. 

"Pure," the tomb robber said disbelievingly. "Pure magic. You _are _telling the truth...I apologize, Yugi, for my lack of trust."

"It's okay," the Hikari murmured quietly, thinking to himself. 

There was silence for several minutes before Bakura broke the silence again. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but I have told you of my world. What am I like in yours?"

Yugi sighed. "I don't think you really want to know."

"Of course I do," the ancient thief said, his tone nearly a growl.

"Well...you're not the exactly the nicest person in my Realm. Far from it. You're abusive to your aibou, as well as power-hungry. Dangerous, too." Bakura raised an eyebrow. "Like I said," Yugi finished hastily, "Not the nicest guy around."

"I see," the tomb robber muttered to himself. Again, quiet settled on the two's shoulders. It seemed to be forever before Bakura finished speaking. "If I ever cross into your Realm, Yugi, the other me had better watch out. I'll teach him a lesson about a yami/hikari relationship..." There was a threatening growl in the sentence, which caused Yugi to shiver. 

The dark spirit sighed. "What time is it?"

The Hikari glanced at his watch, the numbers glowing in the dim light. "Quarter to nine. Why?" 

"Good," the thief murmured. His shape began to fade as he returned to the Ring; within moments he had taken control of Ryou's body once again, moving it from the cot. 

Turning to Yugi, he said quietly, "Rest. I will have means to escape here around midnight; I will see if I can help you escape as well. But you will need to rest in order to keep up." 

Slowly, the boy nodded, walking to the cot and laying down on it. It was lumpy and uncomfortable, but it seemed beautifully soft after the day's ordeals. Within a matter of moments, he had drifted off to sleep. 

His last memory of the night was the sound of Egyptian murmurs, almost a rhythm, which soothed him into a restful state even quicker than he could have thought. 

*****

HCG: o_O;; long...and it took three days to write too...

Karma: Well, at least it's interesting ^_^

HCG: You think?

Karma: Of course!

HCG: What about you, Ryou?

Ryou: *grumbles* Is it an unwritten law that I must ALWAYS be tormented by an evil Yami?!

HCG: Hmm...no.

Ryou: *sigh* Well, other than that it was a good chapter. 

HCG: Speaking of yamis...where's Bakura?

Karma: *points* over there with Slash...they've got a chest of large dangerous sharp objects.

HCG: O_O;; uh oh...

Karma: Yeah. Want me to stop them?

HCG: You can try...

Karma: 'kay...*runs off to try and stop Slash and Bakura*

Ryou: *over suddenly loud fighting sounds* HCG would very much appreciate if you reviewed this chapter for her...she really really really needs the reviews! 


	4. Trust the Traitor

HCG: *armed with an extraordinarily large case of Vanilla Coke* Ya know what? I think it's time to get back to writing ^_^ Especially after all three of the nice reviews I got, and two of them for Chapter 3 too.

Karma: *glancing at Vanilla Coke* Um...Guardian? It's 8:30 in the morning...don't you think soda is a bad idea?

HCG: No. I need sugar so I can get a big sugar-high...that's when I'll write best. 

Karma: I think you bounce off the walls too much to write when you get a sugar high as big as the one you're planning. 

HCG: *stares at Vanilla Coke, then sadly shoves it away* You're right...

Slash: *enters, tries to look un-noticeable*

HCG: Slash? Where have you been?

Slash: *grins* Oh, me? I was out with Bakura...we're both thieves, see, and we're both after really powerful magical items--

Karma: *glares daggers at Slash*

Slash: *avoiding daggers* --so we figured we'd make a good "Stealing Stuff" team. 

HCG: *groan* I told you, you're not supposed to steal stuff unless I send you out to steal it! *brightens* Just out of curiosity...what _did _you steal?

Slash: *leaves, comes back driving a small dump truck. Dumps contents out, revealing them as gold, jewels, silver, and other shiny, pretty items* ^_^ This. This is my half.

HCG: O_O!!! ^____^ Purdy!

Karma: *groans* I hope you're going to return that later, Slash. Oh, and HCG, shouldn't you get to the story?

HCG: Oh, yeah, right! Firstly, before we begin...thanks to Black Unicorn, VMR, and Ms. Prongs for giving me reviews ^_^ *Scoops up a ton of Slash's plunder and throws it to the reviewers* 

Slash: Hey! *whine*

HCG: Stop whining and do the disclaimer.

Slash: Right....HCG doesn't own Yugioh, though she wishes she did. Me and Karma belong to her though...and considering I'm a much better thief than Bakura, I think it's fair. *evil grin*

HCG: ¬_¬;; right, Slash. Now, notes:

Yugi and Yami, we know that by now.

Ryou is the Light half, Bakura is the dark half. 

__

Finally, italics are thoughts or memories/dreams

Oh, and just to clarify, if Yugi's talking about his friends in this story (usually in his thoughts) unless I write otherwise, he's talking about the version of his friends in _his _Realm. 

And finally, now we see where the "PG" comes in. Some bad language, and...other not-nice stuff. Can't say or I'll give it away...

Shadow Turned Light

Chapter 4: Trust the Traitor

"Yugi...get up."

Yugi awakened slowly to the quiet murmurs of the yami in the room. It took him a second to realize the spirit was gently shaking him as well. He groaned slightly and sat up, half rolling off the bed as he moved to stand. 

"I'm up, I'm up, don't worry," he mumbled, prying his eyes open. Sleep still blurred them, making his vision fuzzy. He was amazed that he had slept so hard; he hadn't realized how fatigued he'd been until he was resting deeply. 

Apparently Bakura hadn't realized either. "Do you _know _how hard you are to wake up?!" he hissed quietly, arms crossed over his chest. 

"Sorry," Yugi muttered apologetically.

The tomb robber sighed and waved it aside. "Never mind, I just get tense when all I can do is wait. I know how much energy it takes just to pass through a portal to the Shadow Realm; it drains you just _getting_ there. I imagine that traveling to a parallel dimension must be five times as tiring."

The Hikari chuckled slightly at the way the yami had said the words; he had made the idea of traveling to other Realms seem as normal as walking down the street. His laughter was cut short as Bakura continued speaking.

"We should be leaving in about a half hour or so, if everything works out right. By Ra, I hope it works; if I don't get out of here the Opposition is doomed. As I said, I'll try to get you out of here as well, but you _must _listen to me, under all circumstances. Don't question what I do or what I tell you to do, just do it. Understand?"

"I understand perfectly," Yugi said quietly. He wasn't afraid to trust the yami at all anymore, and he'd do whatever the spirit said in order to survive this Realm.

"Good," Bakura muttered. "Now all we can do is wait."

Yugi nodded and sat back down on the cot. He wasn't sure what they were waiting for, but it would give him time to think. 

After a while, the tomb robber noticed the young Hikari's silence and asked quietly, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, really," the other boy replied. "I'm just trying to think. First all those people out on the streets were looking at me as if I was going to kill them all. And then those men caught me. But why does everybody act differently around _me? _I mean, if I'm dead here..." he let the sentence hang in the air.

The thief across from him sighed disdainfully. "Many of those idiot mortals out there can't tell a Yami from his Hikari. They both look the same, usually, after all; take a look at Ryou and myself. The ones that looked on you with fright probably thought you were Yami, and if so the fear is explained easily enough. The 'Great Leader' does not take kindly to those who wish to resist against his might, and many of the people out there do not like him at all. Although most of them fear to join the Opposition, afraid of his punishments. You probably gave them quite a scare, walking around the streets like that." 

Yugi winced slightly; so _that _was the reason they all acted terrified of him. They really did think he was going to hurt them. "I didn't _mean _to scare them; I didn't know. What about the guards? If they serve the 'Great Leader'....if they serve Yami...they wouldn't arrest him."

Bakura growled. "Unfortunately, Yami has made sure his guards can tell the difference between a Light and Dark soul. Some of them--very few, keep in mind--have a weak magical ability, born to them from the start, that can sense the darkness within a soul. Yami discovers these men and trains them to use this power, then places them into his Guard. They are in a special group that the Pharaoh has designed for hunting down Millennium Item users, like myself, or others with ancient Egyptian magic held within, like Seto Kaiba."

Yugi blinked in confusion momentarily. _Kaiba? But Kaiba doesn't even have a yami...wait. Kaiba is the reincarnation of an Egyptian priest, isn't he? That's what Yami told me...maybe that's what Bakura means._

The tomb robber continued, unaware of the Hikari's thoughts. "Obviously, they could see the difference between Yami and yourself, and it stands to reason that they would take you here. After all, you _are _dead in this Realm, and if you suddenly came to life again they would naturally think of you as an imposter. Even _I _did at first. And imposters are linked to the Opposition, making yet another reason for your capture."

"Oh," Yugi said quietly, before letting silence take over. So people thought he was an imposter. 

"There's still something on your mind," Bakura said calmly, staring at the other boy with his soul-penetrating brown eyes. 

_Funny, how he can act so much like Ryou sometimes, _Yugi thought to himself. Ryou had always known when something was wrong with his friends, and he always strove to help them with their problems, even with his troublesome, abusive Yami standing over him. 

"Um...well, yeah, there is...but it really doesn't matter," the young Hikari murmured softly, still half-lost in his thoughts. 

"I would advise you to ask any questions you have while in this Realm," the tomb robber said, still with a calm tone in his voice. "As I said earlier, you will not survive here if you do not have answers."

Yugi sighed. "Alright. I was just thinking. _My _Yami...the good one, I guess you could say...didn't come through with me, or at least I think so. He'd be here with me otherwise--and he'd probably be freaking out that I've even talking to you," he added, attempting humor. Bakura did nothing, so Yugi hastily continued. "But there's still a version of Yami here, no matter how bad he is. Shouldn't I be able to mind-link with him?"

The thief thought for a moment before replying. "No," he finally said slowly, "I don't think so. He _is _your Yami, but then again he is not. You are not from this Realm, so although he is a version of the Yami you know, he is at the same time a completely different person, and therefore he has no connection to you whatsoever." He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Why would you want to form a mind-link with him anyway?"

"Because if I could, maybe I could make him be less....well, less _bad._" They boy stared at the tomb robber across from him, violet irises connecting to chocolate-brown orbs. "I know that if I got a mind-link to him, I could change him. I do have a...a Pure Millennium Puzzle...and I'm sure the magic would help me get rid of that evil inside him. But I guess it won't work, if I'm from a different Realm." He sighed. "I'm sorry. I wish I could help more."

Bakura stared at the innocent eyes locked on his own before turning his head. They were too kind, too trusting; even in this Realm he couldn't stand it. He had seen what innocence had done to his Hikari. Nonetheless, he erased the small trickle of doubt that had formed in his mind at the boy's question. 

"It doesn't matter," the thief said quietly, "we don't have to worry about that now anyway." He paced back and forth across the cell once, then muttered, "Damn him! Where is that stupid agent anyway?!"

Yugi blinked. "Agent? What agent?"

"The one that the Opposition should have sent," he muttered. "I don't understand what's happened to him, he should have been here by now and--" He was cut short as the heavy steel door to the cell crashed open in a rush, making the floor shake under their feet.

"Wha?!" the young Hikari yelped in surprise, leaping off the cot and hitting the floor to stand, feet planted firmly and the rest of him ready for anything. 

Bakura stared at him oddly for a second before turning to the door. There was a person standing in the doorway, Yugi realized, and hastily he drew himself up to simply standing. 

"What took you so long?!" the tomb robber snapped irritably. Yugi found himself thinking again of the Bakura he knew from _his _Realm. His thoughts cut short as the thief continued. "You should have been here a good fifteen minutes ago, I may have lost my chance...what happened?!"

"I'm sorry, sir," the man in the doorway replied. He had to have been at least twice Bakura's apparent age (the spirit had to have been over five thousand years old in reality, but he adopted the age of his host body, as did most of the yami spirits) and yet he was accepting the teen spirit yelling at him as if it was nothing. There wasn't even a twinge of nervousness in the man's voice as he spoke, so it was obvious he was used to the tomb robber's angry tones. He wore all black, as the other guards had, but he was definitely different from the previous men Yugi had seen here. "I only _just_ got the assignment of feeding the prisoners; I had to trade the job with another guard." Yugi noticed for the first time that the man was carrying a tray, which was supporting several bowls of what could only be guessed at as food. 

"What's going on, Bakura?" the young Hikari asked, still staring in surprise at the man in the doorway. As he spoke, the man seemed to notice him for the first time; he turned his eyes on Yugi and flinched. An angry stare followed, a stare that would not leave Yugi alone.

"Knock it off," the tomb robber said coldly to the 'guard.' "He isn't Yami, you moron; why else would he be in here?"

The man blinked. "Then...who is he?"

"Who else would he be?" Bakura snapped. "He's Yugi Moto."

"Yugi! But...but I thought he was..." the man glanced uncomfortably at the boy in the corner, frowning.

"He is dead here, but not this version of him," the thief said calmly. "I know it is confusing, but it is not your place. We need to get out of here, and we have not the time for talk."

With one last confused glance at Yugi, the man turned back to the Ring spirit and nodded respectfully. "Yes, sir. I managed to shut down as much security as I could without being noticed, but it's not much. I hope you can get out of here okay." 

Bakura nodded. "I should be fine. The problem is whether I can get Yugi out as well." He glanced momentarily at the Hikari, then returned his attention to the man at the doorway. He moved forward, leaving the cell, and motioned for Yugi to follow. When he, too, stood in the doorway, he spoke again. "Any messages from the Head of the Opposition?"

The man nodded. "The Blue Eyes requests that you try and steal a few records on the security in this area. There are many prisoners here that would join the Opposition if they could escape."

_The Blue Eyes? _Yugi thought to himself. _It sounds like a high rank. _He sighed. _Now I'm even more confused. _

"I'll try to, if I can," Bakura said calmly, "but with another person to get out of here it may be difficult."

"Just make sure you get out of here," the man said. "You're too important in the Opposition to get killed or captured."

The tomb robber nodded and grinned despite himself. "I'll get out, don't worry. Now for the tough part."

The man winced. "I hate this part."

The dark spirit shrugged. "I don't like it any more than you do," he said, genuine disgust in his voice, "but we've got to make this escape look convincing."

"Just don't hit me on the head so hard like last time," the fake guard muttered. "I had a headache that lasted for days, then. You've got a hard strike."

Bakura sighed. "I'll try, but I can't make any promises," he said. "Here, give me the tray."

The man did as he was asked, handing the tray and it's 'food' contents to the yami spirit. He then closed his eyes, as if expecting somebody to hit him. 

"Sorry," the tomb robber muttered. He raised the tray speedily, sending the bowls and their various mushes tumbling to the floor, and with skill smacked the heavy item across the man's head with a crack. The man groaned, sighed, and slumped to the floor, instantly falling unconscious. 

"What was that all about?!" Yugi asked as quietly as he could, shocked.

"Follow me," the yami muttered, running off down the hall. He explained as he traveled, glancing down different halls the entire time. "See, we have to make this escape look like it was really just me, with no inside help. If Yami even suspected that we have Opposition agents among his guards, he'd be on us faster than a falcon on a mouse. If that agent back there--" he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, indicating the man he had just knocked out with the tray, "--looked as if he got knocked out by me, then the suspicion is taken off of him and Yami won't suspect he helped out. He's safe, then, and free to continue the Opposition's work. A bump on the head is a small price to pay for that." 

"Ah," Yugi muttered, still surprised. 

"Trust me," Bakura said, "if there was any other way to keep the suspicion off the agents, I'd use that, but there isn't, and we need to get out of here." He steered the young Hikari down a side hall and went on without stopping. He seemed to know his way around the prison pretty well, Yugi mused; he must be used to breaking in and out of the building. 

The boy's first shock came when the tomb robber stopped abruptly in front of him, causing him to nearly run into the dark spirit. The yami cautioned him to be quiet and carefully peered around the corner at the end of the hall they were currently in. He drew his head back almost instantly and hissed, "Guards. Two of them. I'll be right back." 

Before Yugi could protest, the spirit had whipped around the corner stealthily and was sneaking down the hall. Not wanting to miss out on anything important, Yugi peered around the corner and watched, careful to keep himself from being noticed.

The two guards were huge, nearly twice Bakura's size, and they were covered in knotted muscles. They glared at the Ring spirit in surprise, then quickly anger. One of them spoke. "An escape?"

The tomb robber grinned, an evil, crazed light in his eyes. "Yes, an escape," he hissed menacingly. "An escape you'll never have the chance to report." 

_Now _that's _Bakura, _Yugi thought to himself quietly, reminded for the hundredth time of the spirit in his Realm.

The thief continued speaking; he was also drawing something from his pocket. Yugi's eyes widened in surprise as he recognized a Duel Monster's card. It was battered and ripped at the top left-hand corner, but the picture was clearly a Man-Eater Bug. "Prepare to visit the Graveyard, you fools...you should have called for help when you had the chance." He raised the card high, and his Millennium Ring glowed eerily. The men, realizing the infamous tomb robber was about to use his summoning magic, prepared themselves to counter it with a few of Yami's own tricks. 

So absorbed in calling on the weak magic Yami had trained them to use, they didn't notice Bakura drop his hand and run forward until it was too late. He hit the first one in the stomach, winding the man and making him collapse. The second turned to face him, but not before the tomb robber had grasped the first guard's shirt collar in his fist and threw him bodily into the second. Both groaned and fell unconscious. Bakura surveyed the damage done quietly and placed the Man-Eater Bug, still in his hand, back into his pocket.

"Fools," he hissed. "Too easily tricked." He beckoned to Yugi, signaling him to follow, and turned to continue down the hall, leaving the two guards where they lay. 

The young Hikari caught up as fast as his short legs would allow, staring in astonishment. "How...exactly did you do that?"

"Years of training," the tomb robber replied curtly, checking the hallway over repeatedly with sharp, detail-oriented eyes. 

"But how come you didn't summon the Man-Eater Bug and send them to the Graveyard?"

Bakura looked surprised. "I don't summon the monsters unless it is absolutely necessary, and as for the Graveyard, why would I send people there? It's not right, and I _won't _stoop to Yami's level."

Yugi widened his eyes in bewilderment, then lowered his head to stare at the hall. "This is really weird."

"What?"

"Oh, it's just that in _my _Realm you would have enjoyed sending them all to the Graveyard. You've done it tons of times; you've even sent Tristen and Joey there in a Duel Monsters game."

Bakura flinched, then muttered, "I'm beginning to hate this other me more and more." He shook his head, walked down another hall, and continued talking. "That is not the only reason I didn't use the magic, though."

Yugi blinked, confused. "What other reasons could you have?"

The thief smiled grimly. "I'm hiding behind a disguise, I guess you could say. Yami thinks that I'm weak, and I plan to keep him thinking that. He threw me into the Shadow Realm once, you see, and thought I was as good as destroyed. I managed to find a way back, with Ryou's help, and since then Yami believes I've been weakened too much to pose a threat to him anymore. I'm _far_ from weak, but if he knew that the Opposition would be in much more danger than it's in even now; he'd try to hunt me down to destroy me completely. So I have to refrain from using magic that is too powerful in cases like these, or he'd get suspictious. And summoning Shadow Realm creatures is very powerful magic." 

"I see," the young Hikari said. "Pretty smart. You and this Opposition have thought of every angle."

"You have to, if it's the only way to survive."

They wandered down another corridor before Yugi asked his next question. "What's 'The Blue Eyes?' I'm guessing it's some rank in this Opposition, but who is it?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that," Bakura said calmly, guiding Yugi around another corner into a new hall devoid of life. "At least, not until he decides to reveal himself. I may be high-ranking, but even I can't say that."

"Ah," the boy said, a little sadly. They needed so much security, so many disguises, so many lies...it was a horrible life they lead in this Realm. "That's okay, I understand."

They continued on in silence for what seemed like hours. Bakura knew his way around the prison easily, and lead the Hikari through a maze of corridors and hallways that would have otherwise been impossible to keep track of. He didn't even use the Millennium Ring to guide him, which came as a surprise for Yugi at first, until he remembered that the spirit was a tomb robber and was quite used to the situation he was in. 

At least five other times they discovered guards patrolling the halls, usually in twos or threes. Bakura disposed of them easily enough, leaving a clear trail as to where he was going. When Yugi asked him about this, he replied calmly, "We need to leave a trail of evidence. They have to know I fought my way out of here, and by hand. It'll ease the Pharaoh's suspicious mind."

Eventually, the ancient dark spirit lead him to a wide room, large and with several boxes and chairs around the sides, near the walls. It looked a bit like a warehouse or something of the sort to Yugi, but he didn't ask about it. They crouched, hidden, in the shadows the hall cast as it entered the room.

"The back exit," the Ring-spirit hissed quietly, pointing to a door across the room. "If we can make it there, we're safe."

The 'if' was soon apparent to Yugi. The room was not empty; there were guards here, and quite a few of them. Bakura wouldn't be able to get rid of them all with his simple tactics, and if he used magic he'd be bringing Hell down on the Opposition...

"How do we get out?" Yugi whispered back, studying the guards. There had to be at least ten, maybe more, and he was sure he could see the glitter of knives at at least half of the men's belts.

The tomb robber was also studying the guards, squinting as if he was looking for something. Finally he nodded with satisfaction. "None of the men there are from the Special Guard Yami uses. They shouldn't be able to tell the difference between you and your dark spirit, if we work at it a bit."

Yugi stared at the tomb robber in shock. "You don't mean..."

Bakura grinned. "That's right. You're playing the Pharaoh, who has come to pick up the Traitor of the Ring for questioning."

"Do you think I can pull it off?" the Hikari asked nervously. "I mean, I don't even know how he acts here!"

The thief thought for a second, then said quietly, "You know how I act in your Realm?"

"Yeah..."

"Act like that."

"Okay..." the boy said, unhappiness showing plainly in his voice and expression.

The Ring spirit stood back and stared at Yugi with a frown. "You still look too innocent," he muttered. He brightened suddenly. "I can fix that," he said, moving forward. 

"What are you--" Yugi began, but he was cut off as Bakura reached out and started messing with his tri-colored hair. "Hey!" he gasped quietly in protest.

"Come on, you gotta look like Yami somehow," the tomb robber muttered. "Haven't you noticed in your Realm that every time you combine souls with Yami, the energy the Puzzle releases musses up your hair a little bit? Mostly your bangs," he said calmly, grabbing one of the golden locks and sweeping it upward to prove his point. 

"Yeah, I've noticed, but it's not like you can get them to _stay _up," Yugi mumbled, standing still and grudgingly allowing the darker spirit to mess with his hair. 

He was proved wrong, however, as a few minutes later he stood with his hair in the same way that it usually appeared when he fused with Yami. Bakura muttered about the obvious height difference between the Pharaoh and his Light--Yugi complained at this--but in the end they could do nothing about it, and decided that the Hikari's height would just have to do. 

"How are you going to look like a prisoner, though?" Yugi asked, staring up at the dark spirit carefully, so as not to upset the few bangs balancing in an upright position. "We don't have any chains or anything."

"Do you honestly think that _chains _would hold a Yami?" the tomb robber asked disdainfully. "No, I'm going to act like I'm bound with Shadow Realm powers." As if to prove his point, the Ring around his neck glowed softly, and a darkness seemed to seep around him. 

"Ah," Yugi said nervously. 

"Let's go," Bakura said, moving forward slightly. "You've got to be in front. And remember, act a bit insane--not too much--but just as if there are things they don't understand, that _you _don't even understand." 

"Right," the Hikari said quietly, as he stepped from the hallway, the tomb robber quickly following. 

As soon as he stepped from his hiding position, he assumed a calm and confident stride, as if he _knew _he was in control and expected others to know the same. He walked towards the guards quietly, narrowing his large, innocent-looking eyes to make them look more calculating. He tried not to look behind him, but he knew that Bakura was walking with a stagger, as if he was being tugged along by some invisible leash. He also knew that the thief's face wore his well-known scowl, as if he was angry about being "caught" by his "worst enemy."

One of the guards approached Yugi carefully, bowing respectfully. "G-Great Leader, we did not expect you here," the man said, cringing as if he was going to be hit.

Yugi mentally took a deep breath before beginning his act. Trying to deepen his voice, he scoffed, "I didn't expect idiot mortals like yourselves to know my ways."

The man looked startled when he realized he wasn't going to be hit, and he hastily backed away. Another guard glanced at Bakura, wrapped in shadowy substances, and asked meekly, "What are you doing with Traitor?"

The tomb robber in his prison leered at the man, making him back up a step, but it was "Yami" he was most afraid of, as he had begun to speak. "What I do is none of your business, is it? I have my reasons to bring in this fool," Yugi said, forcing himself to laugh harshly, "and when I am done with him the Opposition will be dead."

The man nodded respectfully, but still questioned the 'Great Leader.' "But sir," he said, shaking, "we must know where all the prisoners are headed, to ensure the safety of your power."

Yugi snorted, glaring at the guard as if he were a piece of trash. "You are a fool, to think that my own rules apply to me. Very well, if it will put your pathetic mind at ease, I will tell you what I plan to do with him." He heard Bakura stiffen behind him; the spirit was probably nervous that Yugi was about to say something that would mess up the whole act, but the young Hikari had been ready with an excuse since he had begun to walk up to the guards. "You see," he said, an air of evil amusement presenting itself in his voice, "I am going to bring him out into the open, and question him there. A very painful experience, this questioning is; I've heard some people accuse me of torture, but of course they are wrong." He flashed a cruel grin and continued. "If any members of the Opposition are watching, they will learn their lesson dearly by watching one of their best members die slowly. And if any commoners are about, they will learn not to oppose me, under fear of death." He laughed, a dark, sinister laugh that scared even the Hikari as it escaped his throat. 

"V-very well, G-great L-l-leader," the man said, trembling. "L-leave if you w-wish." 

Yugi smirked at him as he passed by, his arrogant walk never faltering. Bakura, behind him, continued his slow, stumbling walk, as if he were fighting something the eye could not see. When they were out of hearing range from the guards, the tomb robber muttered through the corner of his mouth, "Nice job."

"I hated that," Yugi hissed back, still walking in his in-control stride. 

"Never said you had to like it; but we did survive, and that's all that matters," the spirit behind him said quietly. "Now all we have to do is get through those doors and--"

His hurried whisper was broken by the sudden shout behind him. "That's not the Great Leader!"

Bakura whirled around instantly, facing the ten guards pounding towards them. "Hell," he hissed loudly. "Yugi, run! Run for the door!"

The Hikari did as he was told, breaking for the door as fast as his short legs would let him. He knew that the tomb robber had not begun to follow him, and he would have turned around to help, but he remembered what the spirit had said. _Don't question what I do or what I tell you to do, just do it. _He intended to stick by every word. 

He was about ten yards from the door when he heard the commotion behind him. He turned to get a look at what was going on despite himself, and stared in surprise. 

Bakura had run forward to meet the charging guards, attacking the first one and throwing him unconscious within a matter of seconds. There were two more on the floor at his feet, also knocked out, and in his hands he held two long, glittering knives. 

"Those who come closer die," he stated warningly, with shocking calm in his voice. Just as surprisingly, none of the remaining seven guards dared to move forward. 

Suddenly two of the guards rushed forwards at once, attempting to throw the ancient spirit off by running at him from two sides. The tomb robber was unfazed; he slid towards one with grace, thrusting the knife into the man's shoulder and causing him to scream. The man fell as Bakura pulled the knife free; the spirit immediately whirled and jammed the blade into the stomach of his opponent, who had reached him. He, too, collapsed, leaving five guards remaining. 

As if suddenly reaching a decision, Bakura slowly began to glide backwards, raising the bloody knives warningly. When none of the men followed, he turned his back and ran towards Yugi. 

"Keep going!" he hissed, forcing the young Hikari out of his paralyzed state and making him turn and run. 

They had reached the door when one other guard, obviously the one in charge, pounded forward in a fury. "They cannot be allowed to escape!" he screamed in rage, as he decreased the distance between himself and the prisoners. 

"You do not _allow _a yami anything," Bakura snarled. He raised his right hand, taking the knife's hilt carefully. He flipped it into the air skillfully, moving it to grasp the blade by the point instead of the handle. With a grim expression, he drew back his hand and made a throwing motion, flicking his wrist as he did so. 

The knife sliced through the air like a missile, it's aim true. It embedded itself in the man's chest, and with a gasp and a gurgle of blood, he sank to the ground. 

Yugi stood, paralyzed with horror. Before he could do anything, Bakura turned and shoved him out the door into the cool night air. 

The next hour or so was nothing but a few dim flashes of memory in the young Hikari's memory. He could vaguely remember running through shadowy alleys, up streets with dim lights shining through the gloom, and voices behind him, shouting angrily. Eventually, even the voices faded, and Yugi was left alone with the ancient tomb robber. 

He found himself standing in an alley, the only light being the stars above and one dim street-light nearby. He could see Bakura's face and not much more; even his hair was dim and hard to recognize. 

"Why...did...you...do that?" Yugi panted, clutching at a sharp pain in his side from all the running. 

The thief did not seem tired from all the running; he wasn't even breathing hard. Nevertheless, the young Hikari could hear a break in his voice as he spoke. "Do what? Kill...them?" He sighed, and there was a definite note of shame in his tone. "I did what I had to. I had to get you out of there, and I had to protect the Opposition. But I don't enjoy killing; I don't aim for it if I can. One or two of the guards may survive my knife thrusts, but that one that charged us at the end..." he sighed and let it drop. Yugi looked at the ancient tomb robber and was surprised to see tears flowing silently down his face.

"I'm sorry," Yugi said apologetically, not sure what else he could do. Out of habit he brushed his golden bangs out of his eyes, and noticed that the ones that had earlier been upright had fallen back down into their normal positions from the long run.

"It is my burden to bear," Bakura said harshly, as if he didn't want to admit what he had done. _He's so different from the Bakura of my Realm, and yet so similar..._

Yugi wisely stayed silent and let the ancient thief grieve for what he had done. Eventually, though, he quietly asked, "Now what do we do?"

The tomb robber sighed. "I suppose I had better take you to the Opposition's main base. You said you wanted to help us if you could before, yes? Perhaps you can be more helpful than you thought."

Yugi nodded, glad he could at last help the people he knew in this Realm. "Great!"

The Ring spirit turned and, without a word, lead the young Hikari out of the alley they were in. He wandered down several streets, cutting through alleys and open spaces. Soon, however, he stopped. 

"I'm sorry if it seems like I still don't trust you," Bakura said calmly, "but I have to ask you to wear a blindfold while I lead you the rest of the way. It's a rule that even I can't break." He held out a clean cloth to Yugi, who willingly put it around his eyes. 

He felt blinded, and it made him a bit nervous, but nevertheless he put up with it. He felt Bakura gently take his wrist and lead him, murmuring soft instructions when there was an obstacle in the way. 

After what seemed like hours, but could not have been more than fifteen minutes, the tomb robber told Yugi to stop and remove the blindfold. Without hesitation the boy reached behind his head and undid the knots holding the cloth across his eyes, tearing the fabric away from his face in a flourish. 

He blinked as he glanced around; he was in a corridor, which was dim and small. Bakura was standing at his side and a little behind, his hand on Yugi's shoulder in a reassuring way. What Yugi noticed most, though, was that there was a person standing in front of him. 

The person had to have been around seventeen years of age, but he looked far older. Deep brown hair complemented his ice blue eyes nicely. He had a strong look about him, a warning look, making one think that he was not a person to deal with. He wore a deep blue vest, absent of sleeves that looked as though they had been ripped off from the torn seams. Deep blue, almost black pants and black boots finished his clothing. There was a Duel Monsters card hanging from a thin cord around his neck--no, not a card, a locket-type necklace shaped to look like one. Yugi recognized him instantly.

"_Kaiba?_" he yelped in surprise. "You're with the Opposition?!"

Seto Kaiba growled softly as he glared at Yugi in pure hate. It startled even the Hikari; in his Realm, Kaiba had always hated him, but not like _this. _

He had no more time to think; Kaiba had moved his hand down to his waist in a flash. Yugi had time to notice a holster hanging on his belt before he heard a click. Startled, he looked up to Kaiba's face again and found himself staring down the nose of a hand gun. His eyes flew open as he traced the hand holding the gun to the company-owning teen. 

"Kaiba, what are you doing?!" He shrieked, gulping. 

Seto wasn't listening to the Hikari, however; he was talking to Bakura. "I don't know what's up with you, but I don't admit traitors into the Opposition," he said coldly. 

"But--" the tomb robber began, but he was cut off. 

"I don't take pity on fellow spirits, Bakura," he said, his voice like ice. "I don't shelter them. I kill them."

*****

HCG: ^_^ Hah hah hah, evil cliff-hanger!

Karma: Very evil indeed. 

HCG: *nods* Hmm...a bit longer than I planned...I mean, it's as long as Chapter 3! I planned on Ch. 3 being long, but not Ch. 4 here...I thought it'd be pretty short, actually.

Karma: So we know you're writing skills are getting better. 

HCG: Yeah, I guess so ^_^ Oh, and sorry about that rather bloody scene with Bakura o_O;; I went a little overboard, I wanted to show that Yami Bakura is still Yami Bakura no matter what Realm he's in. 

Slash: ^_^ I thought it was cool.

Karma: ¬_¬;; you think anything having to do with pain is cool. 

Slash: .....shut up.

HCG: Wow, I spent a long time writing this....*glances at clock* It's 2:00 in the afternoon! 

Karma: Oh, no....

HCG: VANILLA COOOOOOOOKE!!! *dashes off to kitchen*

Karma: *sigh* Oh dear god, please spare me from whatever torment you have for me today that comes from Guardian.

HCG: *comes back with a big bottle of Vanilla Coke* I don't see why you're complaining. The sugar rush makes me write better and then you don't have to do your job.

Karma: Oh...right...*sigh*

HCG: Alrighty people, I'm going to brainstorm for my next chapter now. Please, please, PLEASE review! I've only got 6 at the moment, I really need more, please! *Karma whispers in her ear* Oh...and Karma and Slash would appreciate early Christmas presents? *shrugs* Slash likes dangerous things and Karma...doesn't...o_O;; *drinks more Vanilla Coke* See ya!


	5. The Opposition

HCG: *content yawn* Mmm, I've had a nice lil' break, and I think it's time to get back to work on the story. 

Slash: Good idea. 

HCG: Oh, 'n by the way, we've got another guest character! ^_^ Another of m'favorite Yugioh characters, Seto Kaiba!

Kaiba: _Another _of your favorite characters? You mean to say I'm not the _only _one?

HCG: No, Bakura and Ryou are favorites too.

Kaiba: What, is it the whole "Ancient Egyptian Magic" thing? I've got Egyptian background too, you know!

HCG: So you do, but I still have to say you tie with Bakura and Ryou. 

Kaiba: *grumble*

Slash: ^_^ Looks like somebody's jealous!

Kaiba: *stares at Slash for a second* o_O;; What _are _you? 

Slash: I'm an anteater. Duh.

Kaiba: O_O;; you look like a cartoon-ish Duel Monster...

Slash: ¬_¬;;

HCG: *hastily jumping in before Slash decides to kill Kaiba* So! What do you think of your role in my story so far, Seto?

Kaiba: *grin* I love it. I'm so kick-ass it's not even funny. I can't wait for this chapter, too, especially when I--

HCG: *leaps forward and covers his mouth* No telling! How'd you know about what happens in Chapter 5 anyway?

Kaiba: I had Mokuba steal the script ^_^

HCG: *blink* Mokuba? Why Mokuba?

Kaiba: Come on, haven't you noticed that Mokuba has some odd talent for sneaking in and out of places, and of escaping places?

HCG: ...no?

Kaiba: *counting on fingers* He snuck up on Pegasus' meeting with the Big 5, escaped from Pegasus' castle, escaped again when Tristen rescued him (even if Tristen did the work, Mokuba _still _escaped nonetheless), snuck out of KaibaCorp. when I got stuck in the Virtual Pod game, snuck back _into _my lab, and finally in the game itself he got into the Dark Castle unharmed. You've never noticed this?

HCG:...no?

Kaiba: Oh. *shrugs*

HCG: Hey, before I start the story, can I ask a question? 

Kaiba: Sure.

HCG: Can you show me a Blue Eyes White Dragon?

Kaiba: O_O!!! No WAY!

HCG: Plllleeeease? I'll make you look really cool in the fic! ^_~

Kaiba: Well....alright. *takes out one Blue Eyes card, shows it to Guardian*

HCG: OOOooh, it's so cool looking! I've always liked the Blue Eyes Dragons, they're the coolest dragons of them all...

*HCG winks at Slash as she babbles on about dragon cards. Slash grins and picks Kaiba's pocket when he's distracted, stealing the other two Blue Eyes cards*

HCG: Well, I'd better get onto the fic now, or people'll leave. Would you mind doing the disclaimer, Kaiba?

Kaiba: Not a problem. HCG doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh, but she owns Slash and Karma (who's currently absent). And, of course, we all know that _I _am the genius that owns KaibaCorp and all three Blue Eyes White Dragons!

HCG: Yes, Kaiba, we know that. ¬_¬;; Modest, aren't you?

Kaiba: ^_^ Quite. *takes out deck* O_O;; Where are my Blue Eyes cards?! *notices Slash's grin, dives after him* GET BACK HERE!

HCG: *dodging a large cartoon-style fight, complete with dust clouds and shouts* _;; To the ficcie, before I get myself killed!

Notes: 

I'm not going to bother with telling you about Yugi and Yami, or Ryou and Bakura. You ought to know those by now...and if you don't, that means you haven't been paying attention, naughty you!

__

Italicized words are thoughts or dreams/memories

Shadow Turned Light

Chapter 5: The Opposition

Yugi listened to the last three chilling words to escape Seto Kaiba's mouth in shock. _He kills them? Kills?_ _But how could he even think such a thing?_

Kaiba continued speaking with utter calm in his voice, as if he had said nothing out of the ordinary. "Once I'm done, Bakura, then you can explain to me why you tried to bring Yami into the Opposition's base."

The tomb robber behind Yugi emitted a soft growl, as if he was getting annoyed, but Kaiba paid no attention to it. For the first time since they had met, he turned his head to the boy at the point of the gun in his hands and spoke. "And as for _you, _you'll learn the hard way never to mess with Seto Kaiba. You're not the only one who keeps their promises of death..._Pharaoh._" 

Yugi stared at the teenage CEO with outward calm, brilliant violet eyes locking on to icy blue ones. "Kaiba, I'm not--"

"Shut the _hell_ up!" Seto roared, jerking his gun-hand slightly. He didn't fire, just held the gun, with it's overwhelming power of life and death, pointed straight at Yugi's forehead. "You've made me suffer so damned much with all your lies and deceitfulness, I'm not taking any of it anymore. Just shut up."

He looked as if he was going to pull the trigger, to end everything right then and there, but something stopped him. Yugi wasn't sure what, exactly, but he was sure that behind Kaiba's eyes a battle was taking place. He was angry, there was no doubt about that, but there was another emotion mixed in there, too.

It came to the young Hikari quite suddenly what else he was seeing. _Kaiba recognizes me, _he thought suddenly, startled. _He knows that it's me, not Yami. But because I'm dead...he thinks it's all a trap. Just like Bakura did. He doesn't want to hurt _me_, but he wants to get rid of Yami. He doesn't know what to do... _An unexpected wave of pity rolled across Yugi's mind; he felt horrible knowing he was causing so much conflict within his friend's very soul. 

__

It looked as though Seto's mind was being made up, however, as logic once again took over. His hand tightened on the gun again, his finger reaching for the trigger. Yugi did nothing, only looked upward at the gun-bearer with sad, pity-filled eyes. 

With a loud snarl, Bakura slipped forward a pace to stand between the young Hikari and the gun-point. He folded his arms angrily, staring at the gun-bearer with an air of control. "I did _not _just risk my aibou's very life and soul to save this boy so that you could _kill _him, Seto Kaiba! Put down the gun; I have no time to deal with your anger today." 

To Yugi's surprise, Kaiba _did _lower the gun, but he still held it ready as if he expected danger to come suddenly. His hateful glare never once wavered, however, and he never took his eyes off of the young Hikari. 

"What is the meaning of this, Bakura?" he asked coldly, his steely tone piercing the air better than any knife would. "You bring the worst of traitors into the base of the Opposition, protect him, and now order me around? Explain."

"There _is_ much explaining to be done," the Ring spirit replied, tone cool and calm. "But I believe you will understand my position once I am done. This boy," he said, indicating Yugi, "is not the Yami you so despise. It is his Hikari; it is Yugi Moto."

There was a brief flicker in Kaiba's eyes, a flash of some sort of emotion--relief, or anger?--but it disappeared almost instantly. "Yugi Moto? Don't be a fool. Yugi has been dead for nearly two years now. I know you like to talk of your Egyptian magic quite a bit, but even I know that it cannot conquer death."

Bakura sighed. "That is true," he said slowly, "but this is a different matter altogether. This Yugi is not the one we knew; he comes from another Realm, another dimension."

Kaiba was silent for a few seconds, as if thinking over the information he had just received. Finally, after what seemed like an age, he spoke. "I doubt it. It is far more likely that this is one of that damned Yami's tricks. Why should I believe what you say?"

"Because I have proof," Bakura spat, his patience now lost. 

Seto snorted disdainfully, yet his eyes blazed with uncertainty as he spoke. "Proof? Fine. Give me proof that even _I _will believe, and I will take back all my actions here tonight with a sound apology, and admittance into the base. But if your so-called proof isn't strong enough...there will be one less traitor to worry about in the morning." With the tone he used, Yugi was positive that he meant every single word spoken.

__

"There is no need for such threats, Kaiba," Bakura said harshly, eyes narrowed. "Yes, I have the proof that would make even the most doubtful of your thoughts vanish." His tone softened, became just a bit gentler--just a bit. "I understand that you have been through a lot, Kaiba, and that you want to see justice done. We all do, some of us more than others. But you must understand that needless threats will solve nothing; on the contrary, they will ruin everything."

"The proof." Seto's words held the air of a command, and unmistakably one that had to be followed. There was no other reaction; his cold eyes bored as deep as they ever had, burned as intensely as before. 

The tomb robber sighed. "Very well. The proof." He turned and indicated Yugi with a sweep of his hand, drawing the boy into the conversation. "And strong proof it is. There have been three cases that have given me all the information I need, all concerning Yugi. Firstly, he says that he came through a portal, which according to his...sources...lead from farther than the Shadow Realm. All the facts that he gave me concerning this portal couple closely with the legends of Other Universes; I doubt that he could have created such information up on the spot when I questioned him, so therefore this must be true." 

There was only a small grunt of acknowledgement from Kaiba to show that he had been listening before Bakura continued. 

"Second, Yugi also claims that he cannot mind link to Yami, no matter how much he tries. If he were from this Realm, if he somehow survived, no matter how much Yami had betrayed him, the link would still survive. As it is not there, it is quite obvious that he has no connection to the Pharaoh because that is not the same Pharaoh he has become magically tied to."

This time, Kaiba's reaction was somewhat noticeable; his eyes flickered over Yugi carefully, calculating, before returning to meet the thief ahead of him. The Ring spirit, seeing the teen CEO's reaction, continued with his third reason. 

"But most importantly, Kaiba, is something that even you cannot come up with an excuse for. We all know that the Millenium Puzzle the Pharaoh currently has is tainted with Shadow; no matter how much we may try, we could never get rid of such dark influence completely, even with the help of all six other Millenium items. The Puzzle would carry it's taint forever. Yet Yugi's Millenium Puzzle here has entirely pure magic, untouched by the darkness of the Shadow Realm. Pure magic, Kaiba. Do you realize what that means _now?_"

Apparently he did. He was gazing at Yugi with new respect; the young Hikari found it a startling change from the bitter anger that had filled his eyes only moments ago. "I had no idea," he said, looking troubled. "I--I don't believe it. Did you test the Puzzle? Are you sure it's pure?" His voice was intense, as if he wanted desperately to know the answer, and at the same time wanted to seal it away, never to be learned. 

"I am positive. I have tested it with my own Millenium Ring. The Puzzle is pure, and this is really Yugi Moto."

"God...I..." Kaiba seemed too shocked for words. After thinking about it, the young Hikari saw why; to the company-owning teen it seemed as if a friend, once thought dead, had rose again. Within seconds he regained his composure, however, and spoke again. "I'll allow him to be admitted, right now. Though I expect this whole thing to be explained. Follow me." He turned to walk down the long, dark corridor, tucking the hand gun safely into it's holster and patting it once for reassurance. 

Yugi fell into step behind Kaiba quietly, thinking over the newly discovered pieces of information. _So Seto's in the Opposition, _he thought to himself, surprisingly calm. _From the sounds of it, he's got a pretty high rank, too, if the way he was ordering Bakura around is any judge. But..._Kaiba had said that Yugi--well, really Yami--had caused him much suffering. He wondered what had happened to the teen in order to make him go so far as to be willing to kill. _So much has changed..._

Bakura had moved forward to walk beside Kaiba, and Yugi vaguely listened to the conversation they were having. He could tell that the tomb robber was explaining the entire situation to the teenage CEO. He started carefully at the beginning, telling of Yugi's dream, the odd portal, his being dragged through, and his meeting with the thief spirit. When the story got to the point when Bakura explained the Theory of the Other Realms, Kaiba nodded in interest and added his own thoughts. 

"It makes logical sense that there are other Universes, other Dimensions, other Realms. Even more sense to say that they are on different levels, as you said. As to why Yugi was pulled through to _this _Realm out of all the selections...I'm not positive, but I think I have a theory to explain it." Yugi's interest perked up at these words, and he listened intently. "You see, each Realm should theoretically have an opposite Realm...a "Negative Realm" you might say. As each of these dimensions would reflect one another, they have stronger pulls on each other than they would on other dimensions. It makes sense that Yugi would be pulled through into the Negative reflection of his own Realm."

"That would explain why you're all acting differently than how I normally know you," Yugi said quietly, speaking up for the first time since Kaiba had tried to silence him. He noticed Bakura snort in disgust at the mention of his other self, but ignored it. Seto nodded quietly before continuing on in silence. 

The corridor seemed endless, stretching forwards in eternal darkness, light battling its way through only to be swallowed up again. Then, suddenly, they were standing at a pair of double doors made of solid steel. They were locked, but Kaiba moved casually to a control panel to the side of one of the doors, punching in several numbers on the keypad. A small compartment slid open near the keypad, and the teen pressed his hand against the screen within, waiting patiently while a light slid down past his fingers and examined the prints. "We have to be careful," he said calmly, noticing Yugi's surprised stare. "Too much of our security has been broken into of late."

The young Hikari nodded and was about to speak, but at that moment the double doors opened with a quiet _woosh _and revealed the rooms inside. 

Yugi's first thought was that it was gigantic. He stared with amazement at the room as he was herded through by the Ring spirit behind him, half disbelieving. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all white, so pure in color that it was almost blinding. Computers lined two of the walls, some with impossibly large screens, others only the size of a regular household computer. A third wall had doors and halls leading away from the huge main room, and in the middle of the room were gatherings of tables and desks. What surprised him most, however, was the people. There weren't many, or at least it didn't appear so from the size of the room--in any case, there certainly weren't enough to fill all those seats at the computers and desks. But each person wore a determined face, as if they would fight hard for their cause and never give up. They took care of their tasks with patience and skill, whether it was reading off information from the computers or examining papers elsewhere. 

Kaiba stepped up next to him, the hint of a satisfied smile on his face, and spoke calmly. "Yugi, welcome to the Opposition."

"I don't believe it!" Yugi gasped. "This is incredible!"

Seto's vague smile disappeared as he moved forward towards one of the computers, walking briskly. His voice and actions were perfectly serious now, reminding the young Hikari of the Kaiba in his own world. 

"I thank you for the compliment," the teenage CEO said quietly. "These days things like that don't come along all that often. It _has _been hard to lead this Opposition with so much trouble from Yami, but I do my best."

Yugi blinked, shocked. "You're the leader?!"

"Of course," Kaiba said smoothly. "I created the Opposition, and now I plan, command, and take part of all it's resistance movements." The grin returned momentarily, but did not reach his eyes. "I have earned myself a nickname as well. Some know of my fierceness in my plans...they call me the Blue Eyes, in honor of the Dragon."

_Blue Eyes! _Yugi thought to himself suddenly. _I should have known...the Blue Eyes White Dragon, Kaiba's favorite card!_

"Some think I am too young for such a high position in such an important resistance organization," Seto continued, "but I have earned my rank. I support the vast majority of this resistance movement; I provide the technology, the training, the resources, the information." He sighed. "In fact, I probably support nearly _all _of the resources, ever since your Grandfather's sources died down."

The young Hikari looked shocked. _Grandpa, I forgot about Grandpa! _"What...happened? Why...are the sources...gone? Grandpa's not..." he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

Bakura understood immediately. "No, he's not dead, although your Yami probably wishes otherwise. Soon after Kaiba formed the Opposition, it became evident to the Pharaoh through his spy network that your Grandfather was providing information for them. Considering that he is an archeologist, and knew quite a bit about the Millenium items at that, such information could be deadly to Yami if in the wrong hands. After all, your Grandfather _did _discover the Millenium Puzzle, and there was a chance he knew something about it that would help us defeat him. So one day, nearly a year and a half ago, Yami burst into the Game Shop and attacked outright. Your Grandfather should have been dead, but lucky for him I had been there. I managed to fend Yami off long enough to allow your Grandfather to escape. Later that same day I managed to sneak him onto a plane headed for America. He should be safe there, but we cannot get word to him; he travels around the country too much."

"We haven't had word from him in nearly three months now," Kaiba added, "but I'm positive he's fine. Yami would have gloated about it otherwise." 

Yugi released a sigh of relief, only just realizing that he had been holding his breath. _At least Grandpa's okay here, _he thought to himself.

Seto shook him out of his thoughts. "I hope you don't mind, Yugi, but there are a few things I have to check over before we can discuss your predicament. I have to look over the reports, analyze the newly-found data, and so on." The teen turned quickly and walked off, heading towards one of the desks, where a stack of papers threatened to fall and land on the floor. He snatched the sheets before they had a chance to complete their mischief and shuffled through them, reading over their contents with a carefully trained eye. Some Opposition agents would come up and speak to him for a few seconds before he responded in what was obviously an order; all of the agents listened quietly and did exactly as he asked, some of them nearly running to complete their tasks. Vaguely, Yugi thought he recognized a few of the agents as people from his school, both teachers and students alike. Some of them noticed him as well, and glanced at him curiously, but as he came in with Kaiba and Bakura, the leader and one of the top agents, they said nothing. 

"He's really into the Opposition, isn't he?" Yugi asked of the Ring spirit beside him, now watching Kaiba reading over a few charts at one of the large-screened computers. 

"It's all he's got left to live for," the tomb robber said softly in reply, also watching the computer-talented teen. 

The young Hikari frowned at the reply; Bakura sounded far too serious, as if he meant exactly what he said. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that it really is all that he's got left to live for. If he didn't have the Opposition depending on him so much, he would probably die, or kill himself."

"What?! Why?"

"Mokuba." The single word--single name--was spoken softly, as though the ancient thief did not want it to be heard. "Mokuba is the reason."

Yugi felt a cold pang of dread fill his heart, but he asked the question forming in his mind anyway. "What..._happened_...to him?" Even as he asked, he was afraid he already knew the answer. 

Bakura shook his head, regret once again filling his voice, as it had when he told of Yugi's fate in this Realm. "Yami had been gaining power slowly at the time it happened. He didn't have too many followers yet, but he was recruiting more steadily, day by day. With his power growing, there were few who could resist him, few who could stand in his way. But there was one person, and one company, that had enough control, enough non-magical power, to present a threat to him. KaibaCorp was, as I had said earlier, flourishing in it's prime. And Seto Kaiba was able to see how corrupted Yami had become.

"Kaiba put quite a bit of effort into using his company's influence to throw Yami off-track. It infuriated the Pharaoh, who hated to see somebody try to block his path to victory and control. He knew he had to get rid of the obstacle in his way, the obstacle that was KaibaCorp. So he went to the heart of it all, to Seto himself. As the saying goes, cut off the snake's head and the rest ceases to move. If he got rid of Kaiba, the rest of the company would die down and become less of a threat.

"But the shadows that wrapped themselves around Yami's soul gave him a rather sick and twisted sense of justice, or perhaps humor. He didn't get rid of Kaiba by killing him; it probably would have been more merciful anyway, and he wouldn't want that for an enemy. No, as I said, he always attacks the heart. And this time, the heart consisted of the one thing Kaiba cared most about--his brother Mokuba.

"Yami captured both of the brothers on the same day, Mokuba first, and then later Kaiba. He had both of them brought to his private offices. Kaiba was held by magic, so tight he could hardly breath let alone move. Mokuba was brought to the pharaoh, and...he was slowly killed, very excruciatingly slowly, in such evil torment that the mind feels sick just thinking about it. Kaiba was made to watch it all, unable to help his brother from the magic bonds that held him. When it was all done, Yami calmly released Seto and mockingly freed him. Yes, Kaiba was free, but the pharaoh had succeeded in what he had attempted to do; he had forced all of his rival's competitiveness out of his mind with a single move, reduced the threat KaibaCorp held on him to nothing. 

"Since then, Kaiba has slowly recovered from his ordeal. He formed the Opposition soon after his brother's death, and he has been leading it ever since. He _is _a good leader, no matter what some may say about his age--he had a good sense of justice, and he makes intelligent decisions concerning the resistance movement constantly. Sometimes, however, his desperate need for revenge will show itself, as you no doubt have witnessed." 

Yugi stared, wide-eyed in shock, as he sifted through all the new information he had been given. _Mokuba dead, too! How much pain _is _there in this Realm?_

"I...I don't believe this," the young Hikari murmured, mind still filled to the brim with surprise. "This is all so horrible..."

Bakura nodded, then winced suddenly as he noticed Kaiba returning to them. "I would not mention his brother if I was you," he hissed. "Just don't mention him at all." Yugi nodded quietly, agreeing. He didn't want to cause any more pain than he already had for the company-owning teen.

Seto sighed as he reached the other two once more, rubbing his temples absent-mindedly. "The negative reports are getting worse. Yami's moving quicker, now, and he's coming far too close for comfort to discovering some of our major secrets. If he learns that KaibaCorp supports the Opposition..." he let the sentence fall into the air, ending unsaid.

"He doesn't know?" Yugi asked quietly, staring at Kaiba, violet eyes searching. He hid his pain well, the Hikari could see--to the ordinary person, it would be impossible to notice how much torment the teen had gone through. 

"No, he doesn't," Bakura said calmly. "He thought he had erased the threat Kaiba posed, but in fact he only strengthened it. KaibaCorp isn't openly against Yami, but Seto here manages to secretly use the company's resources to our advantage."

"It's not easy," Kaiba muttered. "The vast majority of the people working in the company, including my five main business associates, don't have a clue I'm with the Opposition. And if they did know, they would go running to Yami as fast as possible to sell me out. I have to keep it a secret, only trusting a few close agents."

Yugi frowned. "Those associates just don't like you, huh?" he said, before he could stop himself.

"What?" The teenage CEO asked, staring at the young Hikari in confusion.

"Oh...well, in my Realm they've turned on you already," Yugi explained. "I managed to help you out in defeating them, though."

"At least that's good," Kaiba said thoughtfully, before turning and leading the two other teenagers to a nearby table. He sat down wearily in one of the chairs, calling an agent over and asking them to see if there was any food for himself and his two friends. The agent scurried off in a rush, eager to complete a task set before her by the "Mighty Blue Eyes." 

Bakura laughed at the retreating back of the young agent, explaining his amusement to the rather puzzled Hikari next to him. "She's a new one," he said, still chuckling. "The new ones always find it a huge honor when the powerful Blue Eyes asks them to do something. It doesn't matter what the task may be; he could ask them to sweep the entire floor in here and they would be ecstatic because the leader spoke to them." Kaiba rolled his eyes in annoyance, sending the Ring spirit into new fits of unexpected laughter.

"_If _we could get back to the matter at hand," Seto said coldly, his eyes sharper than steel. Bakura quieted, and he turned to Yugi. "So," he said calmly, "you come from another Realm, a reflection of our own Realm. What are you planning to do now?"

Yugi sat for several minutes in silence, thinking. He didn't notice as a few bowls of steaming soup and mugs of some other hot substance were brought out from the direction of one of the hallways and placed before him; he was too caught up in his own thoughts. _I've never thought about that. What _am _I planning to do?_

Finally he spoke, though his voice was quiet. "I suppose I'll try to find a way to get back to my own Realm," he said slowly, "though I'm not sure how to do that at the moment." Thinking suddenly of Seto's scientific theories and Bakura's magic ones, he asked, "_You_ wouldn't happen to know of some way for me to get back home, would you?"

Kaiba sat quietly, studying him, hands wrapped around a mug of what looked like a strong, nearly black tea. Finally he spoke. "No, I wouldn't know of a way to get you back to your Realm. Not here, anyway. I don't have the power, or the magic, to complete such a huge task." He turned to Bakura. "What about you?"

The tomb robber eyed Yugi carefully before speaking. "As you say, there is no way for him to return to his own Realm from here, or at least not without all seven Millenium Items. However..." his voice became hesitant, as though he was unsure. "It seems that when Yami and Yugi were together in _his _Realm, their bond was strong enough to enhance the powers of the Millenium Puzzle; therefore it was the Puzzle that opened the gate from one Realm to the next. So it is the Puzzle that can open the gate one last time."

"But if the two had to be together in order to open the gate last time..." Kaiba began, paling slightly as he caught onto the thief's meaning.

"--Then the two have to be together again to open the gate once more," Bakura finished grimly, glancing at Yugi for a second time.

The Hikari was shocked. "But how could I even do that! I can't mind link with him in the first place, or fuse with him, or do any of the stuff that usually happens in a yami/hikari relationship. And why would I even want to go near him after all this horrible stuff he's done?"

"You wouldn't have to fuse with him," the Ring spirit said slowly. "Just as long as the magic within both of you is close enough to combine, it will work."

Yugi sighed. "But how would I even get close enough?"

"There lies the problem," Bakura murmured, but he glanced at Kaiba slightly as he spoke. 

Kaiba seemed to be having the same thought. "I could..." he murmured, almost to himself. Suddenly, his eyes seemed to light up, changing from a dull blue to a bright, icy shade. "But wait..." he said, his voice getting stronger. 

"What?" Yugi asked, looking at the teen with surprise.

"Yugi comes from the reflected version of our own Realm. His Millenium Puzzle and it's magic is pure, and he stands for justice and for good. He may be able to help us against Yami."

The tomb robber sitting across from him was becoming noticeably more interested as well. "You are right," he said, a slight trace of excitement in his voice. "He _could_ help us. He could provide an interesting counter to the pharaoh's evil deeds; perhaps even turn the tide enough in our favor to allow us to win." His face darkened. "But it is only a possibility. Yugi was defeated once before, remember."

"I remember perfectly," Kaiba said, strangely quietly, before turning to Yugi. "We will agree to help you reach the pharaoh, Yugi, but will you help us in return?"

"I don't know how much help I can be, but I'll do what I can," Yugi said, meaning every single word that he spoke. He _would _help, as much as he could, taking as many risks as he had to. "It's the least I can do; I owe you guys a lot."

"Very well," Kaiba said calmly, standing up. "Then we need to begin planning right away. I know it's late, but news of the supposed 'imposter Yugi' will spread quick, and reach Yami's ears too soon for my taste. If he knows about you too early, then any surprise moves I could use on him will be ruined." 

"There _is _one problem," Bakura pointed out. "Yami's defenses have only gotten stronger in the past few months. It would be nearly impossible to break into his main complex; some of his defenses are heavily guarded secrets, and some only he himself knows about."

"All that information buried in his mind, and no way to get to it?" Yugi asked, frowning slightly. "How _are _you going to get in there, if you don't know about half the traps you're throwing yourself into?"

Kaiba grinned slightly. "We have a special tactic we like to use at times like this," he said calmly. "We rarely use it--it's pretty dangerous, and Yami gets pretty unpredictable after we _do _use it--but I have a good feeling about this mission. I think you're going to change everything, Yugi." The grin widened to a smile momentarily before disappearing into Kaiba's normal serious gaze. He turned to another agent passing by--_not _a new one, Yugi was glad to see--and said curtly, "Get my best agent over here. And tell him to set up a communication system on one of the bigger screened computers. We've got an ally to call on."

Yugi noticed the Ring spirit next to him twitch slightly. "You're not calling _him, _are you?" he asked, with a traceable sound of annoyance in his voice.

"Yes, I am," Kaiba snapped. "Get over it, Bakura. You hold a grudge far too long."

The thief snorted and folded his arms across his chest in defiance. "He's an egoistic, annoying, foolish mortal," he hissed glumly. 

Seto rolled his eyes, then scanned the people in the room carefully, as if searching for somebody. "He should be here by now," he muttered to himself, but Yugi heard him. "It doesn't take _that _long to set up a transmission. Maybe--"

"Sorry, Kaiba," a voice behind the Blue Eyes said quietly, with a confident tone and a strong Boston accent. "I was on the other side of the base when ya called for me. It took a while to get here." 

Yugi jumped in surprise as he saw _Joey, _of all people, standing behind Kaiba with his usual grin on his face. His long blonde bangs drooped in front of his eyes as they always had, hiding his strong brown eyes. He wore a dark, almost-black green jacket over another dark tee-shirt. His jeans and grey sneakers finished up his casual-looking appearance. There was something different about him though; despite his usual grin and normal appearance, there was something hard in his eyes, as if he had seen things too sorrow-filled for a regular person to deal with. 

"Joey?!" the Hikari gasped in surprise. Of all places, he never expected to see Joey _here. _True, Bakura had told him that Joey had joined the Opposition, but still, he had never thought he would see his best friend standing next to Kaiba as the top agent in the resistance movement.

"Hey, Yuge," the boy said, voice full of his usual friendly cheer. There were no surprised tones at seeing the "dead Yugi" alive again, no accusations that he was in fact some trick of Yami's...just a simple hello in his usual greeting.

Joey must have seen the surprise on the young Hikari's face, because he said with a laugh, "Dun worry, I know everything about this particular situation already. You're from a different Realm, right?" He grinned again at the nod he received for an answer.

"It's great to see you safe and sound here," Yugi said quietly, still staring in surprise at his friend. "After everything I've heard, I would have thought something bad had happened to you too..."

"Nah," his friend said, winking. "Nothing can tear ol' Joey down." Despite the laugh in his words, there was a look in his eyes that said quite the opposite of what his words had.

Yugi noticed the look, and worried about his friend he asked quietly, "What's wrong? Has something happened to Serenity?"

Joey looked a little shocked, but he calmed. "Naw, nothing's wrong with her, or at least as far as I know. Ever since Yami started taking control, Ryou sent Tea, Mai, and Serenity off to some place in England where they'd be safe. Said he had acquaintances there that could look out for them. Unfortunately, Ryou was the _only _one that knew where this place was--not even Bakura knows--and since we can't get any information out of Ryou at this time, we don't know where the girls are." He shrugged. "At least they're safe, right?"

"I guess," Yugi said, frowning. _So much is different...too much._

"I hate to break up the conversation," Kaiba said, a little annoyance detectable in his voice, "but we need to get down to business right now." He turned to Joey and asked calmly, "you have the transmission set up, right?"

"Yup," the boy replied, sounding indifferent, but in reality he was taking in all the information he gathered carefully. "Just tell me who you're contacting and your all set."

Seto laughed, but not out of amusement--the laugh was harsh sounding, and even a bit cold. "Contact the Seer."

Joey raised an eyebrow, but obediently walked to one of the computers nearby and typed something up quickly. The large screen on the wall flickered, a low buzz forcing it's way into their ears, while the screen itself was fuzzy and unfocused. Then, suddenly, the image on the screen became more focused, more visible, revealing who it was they were contacting. 

Yugi's first reaction was to jump back in surprise. He couldn't believe who Kaiba was contacting, and his mind was a momentary jumble as he fought to reconstruct all his thoughts.

They were staring at a man on the screen, or more precisely the man's head and shoulders. He wore rather fancy and expensive clothes, and his long white hair flowed with his outfit quite nicely. Half of his face was covered by his long white bangs, showing only one eye. But Yugi knew already that the hidden eye wasn't an eye at all, or at least not one that a person would expect to see. It was a golden, metal-like eye, filled with magic, and one of the seven Millenium Items. 

Which meant this man was none other than Maximillien Pegasus. 

The wealthy creator of Duel Monsters began speaking almost immediately. "Kaiba-boy! I was wondering when you'd try and contact me again." He sighed in an annoyed fashion before bringing his ever-present glass of wine to his lips for a small sip. Once done, he began speaking again. "I don't know why you called out of schedule, but I can tell you that I have no news of Yami's movement since the last time you contacted me." 

Kaiba stared up at the computer screen showing Pegasus' head and spoke, his voice strong and determined. "I don't need information on his actions, Pegasus. I've got a new angle to work by, a new side which may just win us our battle with the Pharaoh."

"Really?" Pegasus sounded very interested, raising his eyebrow in question. "Do tell."

The Blue Eyes pointed towards Yugi before saying calmly, "There. Yugi Moto is our new ally, and he will be helping us achieve victory."

Yugi finally managed to break in as Kaiba indicated him. "What are you doing talking to _Pegasus?!_" He yelled, eyes wide with shock. 

Bakura slid up next to him, whispering quietly, "Remember, this is a different Realm. I don't know for certain what Pegasus is like in your Realm, but from the sounds of it he is not good. It is quite the opposite here; Pegasus is a strong ally that we trust often. He is the other Millenium Item user that tried to help me defeat Yami."

Pegasus was staring at him oddly with his one good eye. "Yugi Moto? I thought Yugi died _years _ago!"

"He did," Kaiba said curtly. "But this isn't that Yugi."

"What?" The Duel Monsters creator looked confused.

"Never mind, it's not important. Just--"

Pegasus took a sip of wine before interrupting. "Kaiba-boy, if you want my help then I have to know what I'm getting myself _into _first."

Kaiba growled slightly, annoyance showing on his face. "I believe I told you to forget it. I still hold a higher rank than you in the Opposition, and I--"

"Oh, for goodness sake, this is getting endless. Here." Pegasus' Millenium Eye flashed once, and Yugi had the odd feeling that his mind was being opened up and read as if it were a piece of paper. He shivered as he realized that the millionaire had just read his mind.

"Interesting," the Duel Monsters creator said evenly, as if nothing had happened at all. "Coming through Realm portals. Pure Millennium Items. Yes, I understand now, Kaiba-boy."

Yugi shuddered again as his thoughts were confirmed. "Don't...don't do that again," he muttered in Pegasus' direction. To his surprise, the wealthy man shrugged and took another sip of wine. 

"If you want," he said smoothly. "Most people find the idea of mind-reading rather chilling. I would expect the same from you."

"This is _really _weird," Yugi muttered again, rubbing his forehead wearily.

Pegasus ignored him and turned back to Kaiba. "So, what exactly is it that you require of me?" he asked.

"I need you to probe Yami's mind. I need all the information I can possibly get on his defenses at his main complex."

The millionaire looked startled, and his skin paled considerably. "You want me to _what?!_" He hissed, leaping upright and nearly spilling his wine. "Do you realize the risks that would take? Yami can tell when I dig into his mind, and even if he can't stop it, he'll be able to sense where my magic came from. He'll have his Special Guard down on me in hours!"

"I'm willing to take the chance," Kaiba spat. "Yugi here is our biggest and most important priority. If we can get him into Yami's chambers, he may be able to cripple the pharaoh's power. Do you realize the advantage we would gain from that? But in order to do that, he has to get _into _the building first. And to do _that, _we need to know Yami's defenses."

Pegasus seemed to think for a moment before sighing. "You're right," he said slowly. "It would be far too great an advantage to pass up." he took a deep breath, than spoke again. "Give me one minute."

With the high-ranking Opposition agents watching, Pegasus closed his remaining eye and concentrated. Light began to shimmer in the magical item in his left eye, growing brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding. His hair rose slightly with the power the eye discharged, as if there was some wind blowing it gently upward. Then, suddenly, his hair jumped back into place and his eye snapped open.

"I have the information you need," he said quietly. "All of it."

"Good," Kaiba snapped. "Then give it to me so I can start planning!"

Pegasus frowned. "Now, now, Kaiba-boy, no need to be rude. I should take your soul for that."

Seto grimaced. "Just give me the information and drop your idiotic threats."

The Duel Monsters creator sniffed disdainfully. "You know me too well. No, I would never steal a soul, even if _some people _are being annoying and impolite." It was obvious from his emphasis on "some people" that he really meant Kaiba.

Yugi found this most amusing, and suddenly burst out laughing. He received a confused stare from Pegasus and an angry glare from Kaiba, but it only made him laugh harder.

"What's so funny?" Seto growled.

"Oh, nothing...it's just that this is all so...so _different _from my Realm..." the Hikari burst into laughter again. 

"Will you stop it?!" the teenage CEO snapped.

"But..." Yugi burst into more mad giggles, "but you see, in _my _Realm, Pegasus really _did _steal your soul!" He nearly collapsed with his laughter, until somebody dragged him to his feet and held him steady by holding onto his shoulders. 

Kaiba looked at him oddly before turning back to Pegasus. "I want you to give me those facts right now, or I'll..." the sounds faded slowly away, and Yugi realized that he was being lead away from the conversation. 

"Geeze," Joey muttered, "the way they act you'd never guess those two were friends." It took Yugi a second to realize that it was Joey holding him up, and now steering him back toward the table he had first been at. He sat down at one of the chairs wearily, still chuckling to himself. 

Joey sat down opposite him. "Now, what on Earth happened to you?" he asked, eyeing his friend curiously.

Yugi sighed. "I don't know. I guess it was just all so...so _weird_...and there was so much difference that I noticed...I just couldn't take it all. I know what I was laughing about wasn't really that funny, but I just needed to do _something_ to get it all out, and it was either laugh or explode."

Joey nodded understandingly. "I hear ya, Yuge," he said quietly. He sighed suddenly. "Look, man, I gotta get back to work, or Kaiba'll kill me. Once my shift's done I'll come back and hang out with ya, alright?" Yugi nodded gratefully, and watched as his friend strode off towards one of the halls.

Not long after Joey had left, Kaiba and Bakura returned to the table. Kaiba was now carrying several scraps of paper, which bore quite a few important notes. Bakura had a map clutched in his hands; when he spread it out on the table it turned out to be a plan of Yami's complex. 

Kaiba began talking to Yugi and Bakura quietly, marking several places on the map. "Yami uses both modern technology and ancient magic to guard his base," he said carefully, "which means that this is going to be tougher than we thought. We have to have as few men going in as possible. Yugi is obviously going, because he has to get in to meet with Yami. Bakura, you'll have to go to take care of the magic wards; you're the only person we have who currently has a Millenium Item."

"What about Malik?" Yugi asked suddenly. "Or Shadi, or Isis?"

"Malik," Bakura said with distaste, "Is currently in Egypt, researching the Millenium items for clues on how to defeat Yami. He is also defending the Egyptian areas from Yami's men; the pharaoh has an interest in learning more about the items if he can, and that cannot happen. Isis is with her brother, also aiding in the research. As for Shadi, it is unknown as to where he is at this time."

"Oh," Yugi muttered. "Okay, go on."

Kaiba grumbled before continuing. "I'll go on this mission, too, to take care of the modern technology." Bakura looked as if he would protest, but Seto spoke first. "I _am _going, and nothing you say will stop me. I'm still one of the most skilled men here, and Yugi needs all the skill he can get on his side." The tomb robber's arguments faded away, and Kaiba thought for a minute before continuing. "We need one more man to guard our backs, to keep watch for us. Joey, I think; he's got the right skills for that type of thing. That's all the men we can afford to send in; you two, myself, and Joey."

The young Hikari looked at the Blue Eyes with surprise. "You're pretty good at strategy, Kaiba." A thought suddenly occurred to him. "Do you still play Duel Monsters?"

"Duel Monsters?" Kaiba laughed, once again a sound of cold harshness. "I haven't played the game in six months, and I sold my deck to support the Opposition."

"Sold your deck?! Even your Blue Eyes White Dragons?" Yugi asked, surprised.

"Especially the Blue Eyes. They sold for a high price, and brought in money the Opposition sorely needed." Seeing the question in Yugi's mind, he answered it. "I know KaibaCorp brings in quite a bit of money, but I can't use all of it on the Opposition. My associates would get suspicious if they discovered that the company's money was draining away into nothing. I had to get money for the resistance movement elsewhere." He shrugged. "I have no time for games, Yugi. It doesn't matter if the deck--or the dragons--are gone or not." His ice blue eyes contradicted what he said, however. 

Yugi sighed and dropped the matter. He returned to the map with his friends, and Kaiba slowly came up with a plan to get into the base. Bakura helped him out, giving advice and opinions; an hour or two later, Joey got off of his shift and came to the table, doing the same. Within a few hours, the four of them had their plan memorized by heart and ready for action. It was a dangerous scheme, full of risks and many openings for failure, but it was the best they had. 

Finally, Kaiba turned to the young Hikari, staring at him with his steely blue eyes. He spoke calmly, making each word he said have a strong impact on the boy.

"Get ready, Yugi, because tomorrow is going to be hell on Earth."

Silently, Yugi had to agree with the sentence. Hell on Earth. Exactly.

*****

HCG: *pant* Sooooooo.......tired.......soooo.....late.....it's nearly 12:00 midnight!

Karma: *suddenly appearing* So GO TO BED!

HCG : Have to take care of my guests first....*points to Slash and Kaiba, both laying on the ground, exhausted after their fight. Kaiba has won his Blue Eyes cards back*

HCG: So, Kaiba, now what do you think of your role in my story?

Kaiba: *getting up* ^_^ I'm still so damned cool. But poor Mokuba...*sniff*

HCG: Dun worry, it's not real. 

Kaiba: ^_^ good

HCG: I can't believe how long this got...*sigh* and I thought chapters 3 and 4 were long.

Karma: *shrugs* As long as the chapters are _good, _who cares how long they are?

HCG: Right! *smiles slightly, then half falls over* Okay, I have to go to bed now. But first....Kaiba? Can I have your trench coat?

Kaiba: o_O;; Why?

HCG: I think it's cool ^_^ I love it in the shows, it's all flowing and cool.

Kaiba: *shrugs* alright. *takes off trench coat and hands it to Guardian*

HCG: ^_^ Thanks! *runs off to bed with trench coat*

Kaiba: She's weird. Anyway, review for this story, please? And agree with me, don't I act so damn cool in this story? 

Slash: *on floor* *growls*

Kaiba: o_O;; erm...I'll just leave now...*reaches to take deck out of his pocket, and discovers it was in his trench coat pocket* O_O;; HEY! GUARDIAN, GET BACK HERE!!!


	6. Oath of the Healed

HCG: *sniff*

Karma: o_O;; What's up?

HCG: I got only one review for chapter five *cries* I worked on that chapter so hard, I thought it was gonna get the most results!

Karma: Um...well, I'm sure more people'll read it. 

HCG: I guess...Oh, hey, I've got more character guests! ^_^ First of all, introducing the "Dead Characters!" *points to Yugi, Mokuba, and Tristen*

Yugi, Mokuba, & Tristen: o_O;;

Yugi: Could you...not refer to us like that...please?

HCG: *shrugs* Suit yourself, but in the Negative Realm you _are _dead. (What's the Negative Realm? Have you not been paying attention?! Go read Chapter Five!!!!)

Yugi: ¬_¬;; Don't remind me...

HCG: And the last guest of the day is...Yami!

Yami: ^_^ Hello!

Yugi, Mokuba, & Tristen: O_O!!!! *dive to hide*

Yami: What? *Enraged fan girls of the "dead characters" start pelting him with garbage* AH! *dives to hide behind Guardian*

HCG: Woah, woah, woah, stop! *sends Karma and Slash out to round up the enraged fan girls and make them stop torturing Yami* _This _is not the Negative Realm Yami! I only invite characters from the Regular Realm! 

Yami: *coming out from his hiding place* What is going on here?!

Yugi, Mokuba, & Tristen: *also coming out from hiding places* You _killed us all _in the Negative Realm!

Yami: o_O;; Ooooh...

Slash: *returning with Karma* HCG, we've got a problem.

Karma: Yeah, we shoved all those crazy fan girls outside the room, but they're trying to break the door down to get at Yami. Oh, and there's some Yami fan girls trying to get in here too.

Yami: O_O;; Oh dear Ra, spare me, please!

HCG: o_O;; yeah...let's start the fic. Tristen, since you don't get ANY time in this story whatsoever, you can do the disclaimer.

Tristen: Sure. HCG doesn't own Yu-gi-oh or us characters--but she still thinks she can kill us all off...*gets smacked by Guardian and continues* She does own Slash and Karma, however.

HCG: Thanks, Tristen! Now, to the fic!

Notes:

You know about Yugi and Ryou. 

__

italics are thoughts or dreams/memories--pay attention to this one!

/word/ --a hikari to a yami

//word//--a yami to a hikari

Oh, and as a side note about the story--the Kaiba flashback happens only a week or two before Ryou's "accident." Just saying this to fit all the pieces together, because Ryou wouldn't get more memories _after _he got "lost," he just remembers what happened before it.

Another note: Ryou would call Bakura Yami, of course, considering it _is _his Dark side. Don't get it confused with Yami Yugi. 

Shadow Turned Light

Chapter 6: Oath of the Healed

Yugi sighed as he ran over the plan to be used the next day for the umpteenth time in his head. It was dangerous, he knew, and he might be putting his life on the line at more than one point. But he was more than willing to take the risk, in order to help out his friends in this Realm. They needed his help desperately, and they were leaning on him for support heavily. 

_I might be the one that turns this whole fight in their favor, _he thought to himself. And knowing that, he could never abandon those that needed his help. 

"Y'alright, Yuge?" Joey's voice penetrated his thoughts, it's calm and friendly tone perking him up.

"Oh, I'm fine," Yugi said hastily. "I'm just thinking about the plans for tomorrow." 

Joey nodded. "So am I. It's too bad I can't go into the building itself with ya."

"It's okay, Joey." the young Hikari smiled at the protective tone buried in his friend's words. _He wants to look out for me, even here. _"You've got an important job anyway."

Joey shrugged. "I guess."

Wanting to get off the subject so his friend didn't feel bad, Yugi asked him quickly, "Do _you _still play Duel Monsters?"

His friend laughed. "'Course I do. I had to sell a few of my own cards to help out with the Opposition, but Kaiba let me keep most of my deck. I still have a few of my favorites...my Flame Swordsman, my Red Eyes Black Dragon..." He grinned. "Why? I take it you're up for a duel?"

The Hikari laughed. "Sure. It'd be nice to do something familiar for a change."

Joey steered him over to a table and sat down across from his friend. "Is it also familiar for you to beat me in a duel all the time?"

Yugi smiled. "Usually. But you come pretty close to beating me quite a bit." 

They shuffled their decks and drew their first hand, launching off into the first round almost instantly. During the duel, Joey kept asking about his friend's Realm and how life was there. He seemed particularly interested in hearing of himself in the Realm, and his dueling skills. Yugi ended up relaying the entire Duelist Kingdom battles, explaining how Joey had grown from an amateur duelist to an experienced second-place winner. The Negative Realm version of Joey, caught up in the excitement of hearing about himself in Yugi's dimension, made several mistakes during the duel. Yugi easily defeated him, laughing at Joey's grumbling attitude. 

"Okay, Yuge, try me in a new duel this time," his friend said, grinning, as if he knew he was already going to win. "I won't be distracted, and so I can play to the best of my abilities."

Kaiba had been walking by the table as Joey spoke, eyeing the cards on the table with a mix of scorn and regret. It was obvious he knew that Joey was the looser, as well. Yugi flinched, expecting the usual argument to break out--Kaiba insulting Joey, who fell into his trap and let his temper rise--but it didn't occur. 

Instead, Kaiba rolled his eyes at Joey and sighed. "You didn't use that Dragon Maneuver I taught you, did you? Use it this time, it'll wipe out a good chunk of his life points."

Joey shrugged. "If you say so, Kaiba."

The teen CEO stalked off towards another of the computers to read over the data, acting as if he had already forgotten the two duelists were there.

Yugi was staring wide-eyed at his friend across from him as the two began to gather up their cards for the new duel. "Woah..."

Joey caught his friend's eye. "What's wrong?"

The Hikari shook his head. "Just...just...that was really weird."

"What? He just told me to use one of his special tactics."

"No, see, in my Realm he _loathes _you. You hate each other's guts. If he had seen you loose a duel that badly, he'd bring it up for weeks afterwards to ridicule you."

"Oh." his friend shrugged. "Not here. You and him taught me everything I know about Duel Monsters. He just gets mad when I mess up one of his strategies."

Yugi blinked in surprise. "Ah..." he muttered, shaking his head. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this." 

Joey laughed. "Don't worry, man, it'd confuse me too." He shuffled his deck and drew five cards, his friend hastily doing the same to catch up. 

"Wonder where Bakura is," Joey muttered, looking over his hand carefully.

"Why?"

"Sometimes, when he's bored, he'll make the duel monsters look like they're alive when he duels me. It's pretty cool looking."

Yugi chuckled slightly. "He _would _do that. I don't think he's here, though; I saw him go off down that hall over there." He pointed to one of the darkened corridors.

Joey looked over his shoulder at the indicated hallway. "That's were the rooms for sleeping and living in are. He probably went off to bed." He shrugged. "He needs to rest anyway. Ryou's tough to handle in that state." He shrugged and turned back to the game.

"So, I know about _me _in your Realm, now what about the others?" he asked, placing his prized Axe Raider down for an attack. Yugi countered easily with his Curse of Dragon, throwing the Axe Raider into the Graveyard. 

"Oh, there's a lot different from here. Most of the allies you have here are enemies in my Realm...like Pegasus." 

"I can't imagine that guy being evil. He's always helping the Opposition out, financially or otherwise. Whenever Kaiba has to disappear for a few days to work on the Opposition's problems, Pegasus'll cover for him with a "Business trip" story. To the regular people, it looks like Kaiba's debating over whether to merge his company with Industrial Illusions."

Yugi laughed at that. "Funny, in _my _Realm Kaiba had to try and _stop _Pegasus from merging with his company." He explained the whole ordeal to Joey, easily taking a good eight hundred life points from his friend as he did so. 

Kaiba was sitting at a nearby table, machinery parts scattered all over it's surface as he worked on some new invention for the Opposition. He was also watching the duel, however, staring intently at the cards as Joey lost another two hundred points.

It looked as if Yugi was going to win...until it became clear that Joey had been leading him into a trap the entire time. He grinned as he placed his Red Eyes Black Dragon down on the table, adding his Dragon Nails and wiping out the Hikari's Dark Magician in one attack. The "King of Games" looked shocked at such a quick comeback. At the nearby table, Kaiba smiled slyly as well; it was obvious he had been expecting the play. 

Yugi grinned. "Nice move, Joey," he said, laughing. The duel continued on, Joey now fighting like one of the monsters themselves. He lost, eventually, but it was a struggle for the Hikari to defeat him. 

"Man," Joey laughed, "You're still as good a duelist as you were before." He gathered up his cards again and placed them in his jacket pocket. 

Yugi laughed as well. "Remember, Joey, it's all the Heart of the Cards. That's why I win."

To his surprise, Joey frowned slightly, as if he couldn't place what he had just heard. Then, slowly, a grin spread across his face. "Oh yeah, Heart of the Cards. I remember that now."

Yugi blinked. "What? You mean...you don't believe in it?"

Joey shrugged. "I lost faith in that concept the day you died. Especially because your damned Yami believed so strongly in it, and he was the one that did you in..."

The Hikari looked shocked, and his duelist friend hastily looked for something to reassure him. "If you're looking for somebody who still believes in the Heart of the Cards...I think Kaiba over there is still using that philosophy. It's pretty weak in him, of course, as he hasn't dueled in a while, and after you died he started to believe in it less...but nevertheless, he's faithful to the idea."

If anything, Yugi looked more surprised. "_Kaiba _believes in the Heart? But he's always telling me that it's a dumb idea!"

"Hey, you _are _in a different Realm, Yuge," Joey said, laughing slightly at Yugi's shocked look. The Hikari nodded, sighing, and Joey continued. "I dunno, now that I think of it, the Heart of the Cards seems like a good idea. I mean, the two best duelists I know, you and Kaiba, believe in it, and look were you stand among card-players. Well, just you, really--"

"Shut up, Joey," Kaiba's voice sounded from the table nearby.

_Now _that's _Kaiba, _Yugi thought to himself. 

Joey chuckled. "Don't mind the Blue Eyes....he's just touchy when it comes to people mentioning he's not a duelist anymore. He really loved those cards he sold--especially the Blue Eyes White Dragons--but he did what he had to in order to support the Opposition."

Yugi glanced at the teen CEO with a bit of pity in his eyes. _He does so much to keep this resistance movement going, _he thought to himself. _He hardly even thinks of himself. _

His thoughts true only a second later. Kaiba's eyes were drooping, and his fingers were working in just a tiny bit more clumsy fashion on the machinery scattered around the table. Tired, but still working on whatever it might take to win the Opposition an edge. 

Joey must have noticed the Blue Eyes' fatigued look as well, because he checked his watch. "Oh, man, three in the morning!" he yelped, walking over to the Opposition leader quickly. "Kaiba, you need rest if you're gonna go on this mission tomorrow."

Seto shook his head. "Can't. I've got to finish up this prototype, then review the data on Yami's Special Guards, then--"

"I'll do it all, Kaiba, I promise. Get some rest!"

"_Joey,_" the leader hissed warningly, "_I _am in charge here. You have no right to order me about--"

Joey sighed in annoyance. "Kaiba, you haven't slept in two days now! How useful to the Opposition would you be if you keeled over from exhaustion in Yami's complex?"

Yugi could see that his best friend was winning the argument; Kaiba growled under his breath softly, but stood up and headed off towards the "living quarters" hallway. "Fine," he muttered. 

As soon as the CEO was out of sight, Yugi looked at his friend in confusion. "What was that all about?"

Joey shrugged apologetically. "Sorry about that, but I gotta do it periodically. He'd probably stay awake until he hit the dirt from exhaustion. He's deadly devoted to avenging his brother, and keeping this whole organization going; he stays awake too much to check over the status of the movement. You have to force him to get some rest, or he'll never get some for himself."

Yugi raised an eyebrow in astonishment. _Not only is Kaiba really into this movement, but _Joey _of all people is looking out for him? This will never seem normal._

His friend continued speaking. "You ought to get some rest yourself. We're leaving at noon tomorrow to break into the complex, and you'll need your strength if you're to stay alive."

The Hikari nodded, then frowned. "Noon? Why noon? Shouldn't it be at night?"

Joey shook his head. "Yami would expect that, remember? I knows we've got a tomb robber on our side, and he thinks Bakura would advise us to go when it's dark. But in broad daylight we wouldn't be expected--after all, Yami'd think us fools to try and break into his complex when anybody could see us."

"Ah," the Hikari said, understanding perfectly. "Well, I guess I'll get some sleep then."

"Great," Joey said, smiling. He pointed to the hallway Kaiba had entered. "Head down there, go to the fifth door on the left. It's empty, right now."

"Thanks," Yugi said quietly, walking slowly towards the corridor. 

Entering the hallway, he strode past the doors with a feeling of fatigue slowly growing on him. He had slept only a few hours ago, in the cell, but it seemed as if he had been awake for a week. He found himself thinking of sleep gratefully, and he couldn't wait to get to his bed to rest. 

However, the feeling left him instantly as he heard somebody talking nervously. He traced the sound to an open door on his right and listened carefully.

"Ryou, come on, wake up! You're letting yourself loose, don't do it!" The voice was desperate sounding, almost frightened. Yugi recognized it as Bakura, and instantly he walked into the room. 

Ryou was laying on the bed, his breathing ragged and torn, and even worse than it had been in the prison cell. Plastered with sweat and eyes squeezed shut, he looked as if he wanted to die from all the pain he was in. Occasionally a tortured moan would escape his lips, but if there were words in the sound they were unintelligible. Bakura was standing next to the bed with an anxious look on his face, trying to calm his hikari, but all his efforts were for nothing.

"What's the matter?" Yugi asked, worry evident in both his voice and on his face. 

"It's getting worse. It's getting too strong, tearing his mind apart--killing him." Bakura's tone sounded calm, but he was getting scared for his Light, and he could not hide it.

"No!" Yugi's voice sounded sharp, as if he was giving a command. The tomb robber looked surprised, then sad. 

"There isn't anything that can be done about it. I've tried at least a hundred times."

"No," the young Hikari growled angrily. "I won't stand by and allow this to happen." 

Bakura shook his head. "_You cannot do anything,_" he said, firmly, but almost gently. There was no hiding the sorrow in his voice now. "It is incurable. Yami's Millennium Puzzle is too strong, his magic too powerful. I cannot reverse it--"

"The Puzzle!" Yugi yelled suddenly, coming upon a discovery. "His Puzzle...that's the key!"

The Ring spirit frowned. "What?"

"You said the Puzzle that Yami has is tainted. It's impure, and that impure magic was what did this to Ryou." The thief near the bed nodded, and Yugi continued. "I also have a Millennium Puzzle, though. The same magic that Yami used, but _pure._ Shouldn't I be able to reverse the effects of the tainted magic?"

Bakura's face lit up with hope. "Perhaps...it may work." He moved aside, no longer next to Ryou. "I will allow you to try to help him. But hurry; he is nearly gone now."

Doing as he was bid, Yugi practically leaped forward to stand at Ryou's head. He stroked the golden pyramid hanging around his neck for luck, then gave a start.

"What's the matter?" The tomb robber behind him asked worriedly. 

"I...I don't know how to use the Puzzle's magic to help him," the Hikari confessed sadly. "I myself don't usually control the magic in my Realm...Yami does it, mostly, and even then it's at random. Half the time he can't remember what he did."

The spirit behind him cursed several times in Egyptian before returning to his calm state. Then, surprisingly, he muttered, "I'll guide you as best as I can."

"What?" 

"Just as I said; I'll try to guide you into tapping the Puzzle's magic. It will be hard for me to explain, of course, considering that I don't reside in it, but I try to help as best as I can."

"Right," Yugi said, waiting for his instructions.

"Good. Close your eyes, first of all--it'll help you concentrate." The Hikari did so, and Bakura continued. "Now, concentrate on the Puzzle. Think about it very carefully, about how you are linked to it. You should feel a powerful surge resting in the Item...all you must do is reach out to it."

Doing as he was told, Yugi concentrated on the golden item around his neck. He found himself stroking the eye symbol on it's front to help him concentrate; it seemed easier to focus his mind that way. Suddenly, without warning, he felt an unexpected rush of energy flood through him once before returning to the Puzzle. It wrapped itself around the Puzzle like a cloth, almost waiting for him to use it's energy for _something._

"Woah!" he yelped involuntarily, eyes snapping open. Behind him, he heard Bakura shift on his feet.

"Found it? Good. It you concentrate carefully, you can separate the magic in the Puzzle into it's different abilities. From there, I can't help you much. Each Item's magic is different."

Yugi nodded once before closing his eyes again to concentrate. As before, he could sense the magic within the Puzzle, waiting eagerly for him to tap into it. He focused his mind on the energy, trying to separate it as the Ring spirit had said. 

Unexpectedly, his mind seemed to snap and fall into a steady rhythm. Without even thinking, he suddenly knew how to handle the magic the Puzzle presented him with. The energy seemed to spread out in the Puzzle, separating into different levels, different types. The Hikari was surprised to find that each level of magic assumed a color to represent it, until it was spaced out like a bright line spectrum in little bars of shining energy. He vaguely thought he recognized a few of them; the molten red-and-black magic had a dangerous feel to it, and he knew it for the Mind Crushing technique immediately. Others had softer colors, such as brilliant green or light blue. 

It was the faded yellow bar of energy that caught his eye. It radiated with a friendly sense, and it seemed to Yugi that it had a feeling of safety, of protection. Hesitantly, unsure what to do, he reached out with his mind and grasped at the line of magic. 

The power of the energy swept through him without warning, and his eyes snapped open. He stared around the room quickly; everything seemed brighter, for some reason. 

He discovered quickly why the room looked so. His Millennium Puzzle was glowing brightly, enough to temporarily blind somebody. It would have been like staring into a car's high beams for minutes on end, but for some reason the effect was dulled when it came to Yugi. 

_Of course, _he thought to himself. _it's _my _magic, after all. _

Bakura was staring at him in astonishment, as well as at the Puzzle. He looked disbelieving, as though he didn't expect a mere mortal to be able to summon so much energy. 

Yugi cleared his mind of such thoughts and bent forward to place his hand on Ryou's forehead. Before he had the chance, however, the tomb robber behind him grabbed his wrist. 

"I'm warning you, before you start," he hissed. "If you let anything happen to my aibou, you'll find me acting very much like the Bakura in your Realm." His eyes were cold steel, boring into and through Yugi's own innocent, friendly violet orbs. His hand was tight on the Hikari's wrist, and his jaw was set dangerously. The threat was obvious, and Yugi nodded quietly. 

"I'll do what I can, Bakura. I'll try my hardest."

The thief glared at him and released his wrist carefully, stepping back a pace. He watched Yugi warily, ready to jump forward and tear the boy away from his hikari if he had to. 

Taking a deep breath, Yugi reached forward and touched the mind-torn boy's sweat-soaked forehead with his fingertips. 

As soon as his hand touched Ryou, the boy began to scream in endless, pain-filled torment. His eyes snapped open, but they were still dull, still unseeing. He thrashed helplessly, his yells ripping the air apart and tearing at the other Hikari's ears. 

Yugi felt an odd, dark presence snake up his arm and dull his senses. He felt sick, suddenly, wavering on his feet and only just catching his balance in time. He was vaguely aware of Ryou's screams, of Bakura yelling something into his ear, before the darkness rolled around his head and enveloped his mind.

*****

Yugi's senses slowly returned, and he snapped his eyes open instantly. He looked around, trying to place were he was. He attempted to do so quickly; there was a feeling of urgency in the air, and it was strong. 

He was standing in a corridor, that much he saw instantly. It was dark and dim, stretching onwards endlessly. One side of the corridor had an ancient feeling to it, and was built with stone. A heavy door bore a symbol that looked much like the Millennium Ring Bakura resided in. The other side of the corridor was simply built, with a small door and a quiet, calm-looking interior. 

Yugi realized where he was instantly. _These are soul rooms, _he thought to himself. _But not mine, or Yami's. _Shock overtook him suddenly. _These must belong to Ryou and Bakura! Which means...I'm in _Ryou's _mind, not mine. _

He wasn't as surprised as he should have been. He had seen a few Millennium Items that allowed their owners to walk though other minds--Shadi and his Millennium Ankh, for example. He wasn't quite sure why _he _was in his friend's mind, because as far as he knew the Millennium Puzzle didn't have the power of mind-traveling. It didn't matter to him, however; so long as he could help Ryou, he'd use whatever magic he could, even the unknown energies. 

He quietly checked each soul room first. Bakura wasn't in his, of course; he was in his fake physical form, and therefore was currently absent from his soul chambers. Surprisingly, Ryou was not in his soul room, although he should have been. 

_What was it Bakura said? _he thought to himself. _His mind was lost, and couldn't be found. _That would explain his friend's absence from his soul room as well. 

The Hikari looked down the darkened corridor, noticing the detail in it for the first time. All along the hallway in the mind, the materials forming the walls were cracked and rotted, looking ready to collapse at any moment. In fact, in a few places sections of the walls _had _fallen, leaving open chunks were a solid wall had been, and debris all over the floor. 

_This is worse than I thought, _Yugi whispered mentally to himself. From the condition of the hallways making up the boy's mind, it was obvious that Ryou's mentality was falling apart. The Hikari had to do something to help his friend, and quick, or Ryou would be lost.

"Lost!" Yugi shouted suddenly. "He's lost...in his _mind! _He must be somewhere around here, hidden in one of these corridors." He looked at the broken walls ahead of him, coming to a conclusion. "If he can't find his way out alone, I'll find him and get him out of there myself." 

He strode forward resolutely, half-running as he moved. The corridor's condition only got worse, as it had fallen apart and spewed rocky debris all over the floors more and more, the farther Yugi traveled. 

More than once, the young Hikari would leap out of the way just in time as he heard a rumble, followed by a section of the wall tumbling out at him. It had startled him quite a bit the first time it happened, and he had taken to running down the halls instead of walking. 

He felt like he had been moving for hours when it first happened. He had stepped gingerly around a boulder-like piece of the wall when a sudden thought--no a memory--flashed through his head.

_Pain, pain, it hurts so much, god it hurts, Yami help me, please--_

It ended as suddenly as it had come, but it was real. Very, terrifyingly real. And yet, it hadn't been _his _memory. He was positive he had never thought that, or experienced that, in his life. 

He came up with a conclusion in a few seconds. _I must be seeing _Ryou's _memories. It would make sense, seeing as I'm in his mind..._

He walked a few steps further before another memory darted into his mind.

_I was standing in front of Yami Yugi, watching him closely. He seemed different today--not much different, but not exactly normal either. If you could call a five thousand year old Egyptian Pharaoh spirit normal. _

He seemed, I dunno, preoccupied. As if he was battling something in his head. Strange, I know; the only thing in his head that could battle him was Yugi, and they never fought. No, it was something different. 

//What is it, Ryou?// Bakura called through our mind link. 

/Nothing, Yami. Don't worry, it's nothing./ If he started to think something was wrong with Yami Yugi, he'd have a fit. I--

The memory cut off again. Yugi blinked in astonishment; he could have sworn he had just done every single thing mentioned in that memory. It was so real...

He was also surprised to discover that the entire memory was through Ryou's eyes. It made sense that it would appear that way, but nevertheless Yugi found it odd to be looking at himself through his friend's eyes. 

He took a few steps more, turned around the corner into a new corridor. And was faced with another memory. 

_Yami Yugi had been acting strange for months now. I was sure something was wrong with him. Even Bakura had caught on by now, and he was studying the Pharaoh carefully for signs of definite change. _

When Yami Yugi started to vent his anger in rather violent ways, Bakura made his move. He wanted to make sure that he figured out what was wrong with the Pharaoh before he got dangerous enough to hurt Yugi. I doubted he would go that far--Yami Yugi was very _protective of his aibou--but Bakura told me that anything was possible._

He approached the Pharaoh using me. I had allowed him to take over, but he didn't block me out completely. I could still see and hear everything, I just didn't have control. 

"Yami," Bakura said slowly, carefully. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Why wouldn't I?" the other spirit snapped. It was very unlike him, to yell in such a way. 

"You've been acting strangely for some time now. Is something wrong?"

"What the hell is your problem, tomb robber?!" Yami spat, anger blazing in his eyes. "Nothing's wrong with me! I haven't done anything different, nothing has happened to me!"

Bakura was startled; I could feel it through our link. //I don't get it,// he muttered. //Why wouldn't he remember what he's been doing? Something's wrong...//

I agreed with him, suggesting--

Again, the memory ended suddenly. Yugi stopped in his tracks momentarily, replaying the memory in his head. Yami had been acting so strange, so _different, _that he was becoming confused. 

He broke out of his thoughts as the wall next to him rumbled warningly. He leaped out of the way and ran forward more, escaping the stone just in time and avoiding it dropping onto his head. 

The memory had been longer that time. Did it mean he was getting closer to Ryou?

Hastily he moved forward more, and found himself enveloped in a new memory. 

_I was studying for my math test tomorrow when it happened. Bakura suddenly let a whirlwind of emotions break through the link, and I heard him cursing wildly. _

/What's wrong?!/ I asked, startled. 

//The Shadow Realm, it was broken into,// my darker side hissed angrily. 

/So?/

//So, Aibou, that means Yami Yugi has used his Millennium Puzzle to use dark magic,// he snapped. //Something is wrong, I can sense it. We have to go, right now.//

I nodded, standing up hurriedly as I sensed my dark side's nervousness. He was worried about Yugi; something big must have happened. I allowed him to take over my body, though of course I was present and took in everything we saw and heard just as much as he did. 

He ran outside, looking around, and cursed again. Abruptly the Millennium Ring began to glow, and it's two right-sided pointers lifted to indicate which way to turn. He ran, using the Ring to guide him. Both he and I were hoping that we weren't too late for...for whatever had happened. 

Eventually we reached a street half-way into the city. There was a small crowd of people milling about; I soon saw why. 

A building had collapsed and had scattered debris far out into the street. It was half on it's side, with walls crumpled and windows smashed.

/I hope there was nobody in there,/ I said slowly, my mind link full of concern.

//There was,// my Yami said curtly, turning my head to look in one direction. 

There was an ambulance waiting in front of the building along with a few police cars. The police were trying to push the crowd back and away from the building to allow the paramedics to get back to the ambulance. 

A stretcher was brought out slowly from the building. There was a man on top of it, although it was nobody that I recognized. He was injured pretty badly, I could see, but he was still alive. I could tell from the way the paramedics rushed around him, trying to perform various medical procedures. 

My attention was torn from the man as a second stretcher was carried out. I gasped mentally in surprise, unable to do a thing physically with my Yami currently in possession of my body. 

The figure on the stretcher was small and bloody, covered in dust from the building's collapse. One hand hung down the side of the stretcher limply; the rest of his body sagged just as much on the carrying tool. His head was turned to one side, the side facing me, and I could see his facial features clearly. Maroon-and-black spiky hair, and golden bangs that were brushed away from his eyes. I couldn't see his eyes, but I knew what they looked like--a deep, friendly violet color, full of innocence and happiness. I couldn't see his eyes because they were closed; in fact, they would never open again to share his friendly gaze at the world. 

Dead. One of my closest friends, dead. 

/How?!/ I shrieked mentally, my emotions breaking on me like waves.

//Yami,// my darker half said quietly. //Yami Yugi let him die.//

I felt sick. How could a Yami let that happen to his Hikari, the one he was supposed to guide? It was wrong. Wrong. 

My emotions collapsed on me, and Bakura tried in vain to calm me down. Yami Yugi let one of my closest friends die. He wasn't Yami anymore...he was evil now.

Yugi shivered as the memory ended. He had seen...had seen _himself _on the stretcher, dead, dead at his own Yami's hands. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to drive the memory out of his head, but it wouldn't leave. 

_Bakura said Ryou's mind was plagued with dark memories, _he thought to himself. _This must be what he meant. _

That memory had been long, as well, and far more detailed. He really _was _getting closer to Ryou. The stronger the memories became, the greater they would be, the more terrifying they would become. 

Yugi swallowed and ran forward again. He found himself plunging straight into the next memory as he ran.

_"We have to do something!" Tea said stubbornly, talking to myself and Bakura. Joey and Tristen stood next to me, shaking their heads._

"Too dangerous, Tea," Tristen muttered. "Yami's unpredictable now. You saw what happened--"

"I don't care!" Tea's anger was plainly heard in her voice. "Something has to be done to stop this. This is wrong! He hurt Yugi...he let Yugi die! Don't you see, that isn't right! It isn't like _him! I know we can find him in that mind of his somewhere..."_

Bakura took the time to possess me, speaking with my voice. "I doubt you would," he said harshly. Tea glared at me before realizing that it was my Yami that spoke. "That dark shadowmagic in his Millennium Puzzle has dug too deep into his soul. The only thing you'd find is somebody angry and willing to kill." my darker half softened my voice slightly. "I know you hate it, Tea. We can't do anything about it. This is what has happened to him; it can't be stopped."

The girl wouldn't give up. "I'm going to try anyway," she said calmly. "I know I can find him in there somewhere. I--I won't give up!"

I could feel Bakura's annoyance through out link, but he smoothed it out quickly and spoke. "Fine. If you're so interested in going to meet him, at least let me come. If he tries anything, I can protect you with the Millennium Ring."

She looked angry at first, but seeing the sense in the offer she nodded. "Good idea. I'll go tomorrow, first thing in the morning."

She did as she said. The next morning, Tea, Bakura, and I were headed to Yami's office. That's right, office. He had taken control of a business building and had claimed one of the best rooms in it for his own. We marched in on him, taking him by surprise. 

He studied us calmly, his eyes no longer a friendly imitation of Yugi's. He sat behind the desk, the darkness in him practically radiating off of him in waves. His magic had been tainted, for sure, and he was tainted as well.

"And what, may I ask, are you doing in my private rooms?" he said calmly. The coldness in his voice was enough to send a chill up my spine. I felt Tea shiver next to me. Nevertheless, she strode forward a pace and spoke.

"Yami, I know something is wrong with you. I know that Millennium Puzzle of yours has become absorbed by dark magic. But don't you see? You can fight it! We _can fight it! We can help you!"_

"We?"

"Yes, we. Your friends, Yami. Me, Joey, Tristen, Ryou. We can help you overcome that darkness! But you have to let us help you. Please, Yami, please listen to me!"

His cold stare stopped Tea's speech in it's tracks. Slowly, a sickening grin spread over his face. "You don't really understand, do you?" he hissed. "Fool. You're a fool. The shadowmagic isn't something in me to be overcome...it is _me!" He laughed, a harsh, evil sound that did not fit him. Standing up, he walked around the desk and stared Tea in the eye. "Did you honestly think you could change me?"_

Tea swallowed a bit, but when she spoke her voice was strong. "Yes, I did. Do you even realize what you've become?"

"I do." The grin was back, making my stomach churn. "I have become more powerful than I could ever have dreamed of!" 

To my surprise, he pulled out his deck--Yugi's _deck--and began sorting through the cards. Tea ignored this and continued talking._

"NO! You haven't become more powerful. You've weakened yourself, turned yourself into a monster. Do you know what you did to Yugi? Your light side?!"

The laugh came back, and I had to stop Bakura from running forward to attack him. Yami Yugi pulled a card from the deck, turned it for the both of us to see. 

The Dark Magician. My stomach twisted as I recognized it as Yugi's favorite card. 

Yami placed the card on the desk, isolated in the center. He opened a draw and rummaged through it calmly, speaking. "Yugi? Weak. He couldn't stand up to the shadow in the Puzzle. But I could. Oh, I could, and I did, and I harnessed it to my own control. It is mine. Mine. But Yugi could not survive it." He found what he was looking for in the desk, a seven-inch long letter opener. It was silver, and sharp. Without warning, Yami Yugi stabbed the opener through the center of the Duel Monsters card. The point buried into the wood of the desk and stuck there, pinning the card to the surface. "And it slaughtered him."

He crossed his arms, glaring at the two of us, Tea and I. I was shocked. Tea, however, continued to talk, although her voice was wavering. 

"He was not weak. He was your friend. Your best friend. Although I am beginning to wonder if you even know what that means." I was amazed; she was actually getting angry! "Please, Yami, please let us help you! It's not too late for you, but you must let us help! We can still be your friends. We're still willing to be! Please, Yami!"

Yami shuddered, closing his eyes as he thought. He was fighting it again. He wanted to believe Tea's words, wanted to reach out to them. When he opened his eyes, I could see a brief second of sanity in his eyes, a quick moment when he as the old Yami that we had all known. 

Abruptly he fell to his knees, arms wrapping around his chest as if he were cold. "Get out," he hissed angrily. "Get out now before I kill you." I couldn't tell if it was a threat or a warning; the way he said it, it could have been either, or both. 

Tea could see she was getting through to him. "Yami, please..."

"GET OUT!" he roared, his Millennium Puzzle beginning to glow. His mind had been snapped when she spoke, and the shadows had rushed in to control him again. 

Bakura took over before I had a chance to react. He dived forward, Millennium Ring glowing, and deflected the beam of energy that exploded from the Puzzle around Yami's neck. The energy blasted off of Bakura's shield and was reflected at the ceiling instead. It hit with a bang, sending a shower of material raining down on us. 

I heard Tea cry out in pain and rushed towards her. Some of the debris had fallen on her, but it wasn't enough to do much damage. No, something else had hurt her.

I saw what it was in a minute. Yami had jumped up, grabbed the letter opener jammed into the desk, and had thrown it at her. It had given her a cut across the cheek, a scar that I knew would never properly go away. 

Behind me, I could sense that Yami was gathering huge amounts of energy and was preparing to throw them at us. I didn't waste time; I picked Tea up and ran for it, counting on Bakura to protect us. 

We escaped, but not unharmed. Both of us had injuries that would never go away. But the worst injury I received wasn't physical. As we ran, I turned my head to look over my shoulder. 

Yami was standing in the doorway. He was shaking hard, and that evil grin was on his face again. It didn't reach his eyes; his eyes were frightened and sorrow-filled. 

Yami, you are the shadows indeed.

Yugi couldn't take the memories that were crowding his head now. He yelled in anguish, still running. Forward, he had to go forward. He could tell that he was almost there, as the memories were getting even stronger. _Almost, Ryou, I've almost found you. _Another step forward, another terrifying memory he was forced to watch.

_I had been hiding from Yami Yugi for several months now. The Pharaoh was becoming quite dangerous, and he was interested in finding more Millennium Items if he could. I had to run from him, or he'd catch me. It was getting harder, now; he was taking more and more control over the city, over neighboring cities. More and more control, more and more land to rule under that Madness of his. _

I hid out with my friends when I could. Yami expected this, of course, but he never got the chance to catch me. I was always on the move, always staying just out of his reach. He hated it.

Of course, he had other things to worry about, too. For example, KaibaCorp was becoming more and more of a threat to him, day by day. I did warn Kaiba himself that Yami would try something, but he didn't listen to me. I wish he had.

I found him outside Yami's new office building. He had, as before, taken over the building and claimed it all his own. But it wasn't the building that was important; I never even went in it.

Kaiba was sitting on the steps in front of the building. He was more slumped over than sitting. He was a bloody mess, and that wasn't just a figure of speech. His face was covered in scratches and cuts, as was his torso and arms. He looked close to passing out, and I knew I had to get him help right away. 

I tried to talk to him, to get him to answer me. He didn't seem to hear me. Disposing of that idea, I tried to pick him up, to have him lean on me for support. He was mostly dead weight, so I asked Bakura to help me out. Reluctantly, he did so. It wasn't that he didn't want to help; it was just the fact that the both of us, looking nearly exactly alike, would catch some unwanted attention. Nevertheless, he assumed a temporary physical form and assisted me with Kaiba's limp form. 

With the CEO's arms held across our shoulders, we held him carefully between us, sharing the weight. His head slumped, and his feet dragged along the ground. We managed between the two of us to bring him to my old home. Yami would never expect me there; he would have realized by now that I wouldn't return to my home, as it was unsafe. 

I got out a few medical supplies and carefully cleaned and bandaged all his wounds. There were quite a few of them, some of them more like gashes than cuts. It was startling. During the entire time, Kaiba was awake and staring at nothing. I don't think he cared if I was healing him or not; he probably would have let himself die and would not have cared at all. He didn't object to my help, however, so I continued. 

When I was done, I tried to talk to him again. He seemed surprised, as if he had only just realized where he was. I told him he was safe, then asked what had happened.

"Nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive."

I looked at my Yami, worry plainly shown on my face. He shook his head; he didn't understand any more than I did. 

"But you were in front of Yami's building." A thought suddenly occurred to me. "He didn't try to get rid of KaibaCorp, did he? I knew he was going to try and get rid of you. Did he give you those cuts?"

"No. I did."

This surprised me. I didn't understand; none of it made sense. Yami had to have hurt him somehow, or he wouldn't be acting like this. But if he had given himself those wounds, then what had Yami done?

"Kaiba," I said gently, "You don't have to worry. Yami can't get you here. But what is wrong? You can trust me, Kaiba."

He bowed his head slightly. I could see that he was trying to fight back tears, and trying to hide them. 

"It's okay, Kaiba. You can tell me."

Tears were streaming down his face now. "M-mokuba."

His brother. I mentally cursed. I guess my Yami heard me, because he contacted me through the link.

//What?//

/Mokuba. Seto's brother. Yami always did go for the heart./

Kaiba let the tears flow openly, telling his story has he spoke. How men had burst into his office, kidnapping his brother and himself. How he had been dragged, unwilling, into Yami's building, been forced to sit on a chair in the Pharaoh's office. How Yami had come in, using his magic to place a spell on the CEO so that he could not move forward towards the spirit. How Mokuba had been dragged in by one of Yami's Special Guards, kicking and struggling.

I didn't want to hear any more at this point. But I had to help Kaiba bear this burden. I couldn't let it all fall on his shoulders. So that was how I ended up imagining myself in his place. I listened, but at the same time I was there. 

Mokuba being dragged before the Pharaoh, made to kneel. Staring back at his brother, scared, but encouraged by his closest relative's presence. The Puzzle glowing brightly, with blazing bone-white light. And then the screams. Mokuba's screams of pain, of torment, of terror. Begging his brother to help him, to save him, to stop it all, to make it stop, to make it all go away. 

And Kaiba, jerking forward to help his brother. Finding he couldn't move forward, for there was almost a wall of magic between himself and his younger sibling. Kaiba, throwing himself forward, meeting the wall, injuring himself in desperate attempts to save his brother. 

And when that didn't work, kneeling on the floor, screaming as loud as possible to block out the other yells of his brother. Clawing at his face, his head, his arms, his chest, anything to make himself suffer the pain his brother was going through. Anything, just to take it from his brother. Anything. Anything.

And eventually, silence. His brother, laying at Yami's feet, no longer moving, breathing--or screaming. Yet Kaiba continued to claw at himself, tears running down his face, calling his brother's name desperately. 

True, the screams were gone. But not really. They were going on, living on, endlessly. Never ending. Never ending. Never ending...

Tears ran down Yugi's face now. This was horrible. Horrible. But he was close now, so close. Ryou had to be around the next corner, that was it. 

He plunged forward into the last memory to face, still running.

_I was in the hallway outside Yami's office. Pegasus stood next to me, golden Millennium eye gleaming. _

"Ready?" I asked.

"Ready," he replied slowly. 

We burst through the door, facing Yami. He was watching us coolly, as if he had been expecting us. I had no doubt that he did.

With unexpected sureness he released an attack full of dark magic; Pegasus blocked it as Bakura, currently in control, retaliated. Yami managed to neutralize my darker half's attack, and everything became still again.

"Interesting," the Pharaoh muttered. 

There were more blasts of energy, more attacks, more defenses, more sudden ends to a particular round. It was endless, yet I could see that Yami was weakening. And...

I started, seeing that there was some emotion in his eyes. Something filled with sorrow, regret...it surprised me. I wanted to discover more about the look. I turned to my Yami for help.

/Bakura, let me talk to him!/

//Aibou, are you crazy?!// He sounded angry.

/No...I saw something in his eyes. He's there! The Yami we used to know, he's there, like Tea said! Please! Let me read his soul...let me try and pull the true Yami out!/

//Are you sure you want to try it?//

/I'm positive. Please, Bakura. Let me try./

//...Very well...//

I assumed control of my body, took a step forward. Yami noticed my switch and glared at me.

I saw sorrow for one second in his eyes, before I saw triumph. He gathered his magic together...and unleashed a wave of energy so powerful it was terrifying.

The magic swarmed outward, coming towards me. I had one more moment of consciousness, in which I heard my dark side scream in panic. Then the magic rolled over me, and...

Pain. Hate. Sorrow. Destruction. Fear. God it hurts, it hurts so much. It's eternal, God please let this pain stop. Let it stop. Make it stop. Let me die, if only it will end...

The memory faded away, and Yugi whipped around the corner, tears still streaming down his face. 

Ryou sat in the dark, the walls crumbling around him. He was slumped, as if dead, but Yugi knew somehow he was alive. 

"Ryou! I found you!" he gasped in relief, darting forward to the boy. 

Ryou raised his eyes wearily. They were pain-filled, and Yugi didn't blame him at all. He understood all too well what the boy went through. 

"Ryou! Come on! I have to get you out of here now, or everything will collapse!" To prove his point, the floor rumbled beneath their feet, and one of the walls buckled, groaning.

The silver-haired boy glanced up at him--and smiled weakly. "It's nice to be found again," he murmured. But he didn't move, didn't' attempt to get up. 

Yugi darted to his friend, bending down to kneel next to him. "Ryou, listen. I'll help you get out of here. You don't have to be worried; I'm here to help you. Please, just get up! Please!"

"So much pain..."

"I'll make it end, Ryou, just follow me! Please!"

Very slowly, the silver-haired Hikari nodded. "Okay." He stood up, leaning heavily on Yugi for support. The young boy didn't mind; he was terrified for his friend, and wanted desperately to get him out of there.

All that he could remember after that was running. He helped Ryou, navigating the passages, leading him to freedom. Each of the memories he had endured returned, but they were weaker than before. Ryou was winning; Ryou was coming back. 

The walls behind them started to crumble, caving in on themselves. At the same time, a doorway of light appeared at the end of the corridor. Yugi knew somehow he had to reach that light, had to get to the safety of the shadow-destroying light in order to save his friend. 

And suddenly he was _there, _at the door, Ryou leaning on him, still safe. He shoved his friend through the doorway, diving through himself just as the walls caved behind him. He felt a sharp pain on his shoulder as one of the rocky bits of debris hammered down on him, cutting into his skin, but in seconds he left the corridor behind. 

*****

Yugi's eyes snapped open suddenly. He was standing, once again, at the bedside, Ryou laying in front of him. He jerked his hand away from the boy's forehead and gasped in pain. 

His shoulder, the one he had been hit on, had a deep gash running halfway down it. It hurt, too, and blood was beginning to seep out and soak his jacket. 

"What happened?" Bakura snapped, moving forward. He looked concerned, and the look doubled when he saw Yugi's shoulder. 

"I found him," the young Hikari replied weakly.

Ryou stirred on the bed, eyes opening slowly. He glanced at the Ring spirit and his friend, recognizing the two of them--_really _recognizing them. There was no fear in his voice anymore, his breathing was normal, and he had stopped sweating.

"Yugi?" he asked slowly, before drifting off to sleep. A peaceful sleep, not tormented by memories of the past.

Bakura looked amazed. He was staring at his Light as if seeing the dead being raised in front of his eyes. Slowly, he spoke.

"You healed him," he said, voice full of wonder. "You...you saved him. I...I thank you." His voice stopped wavering as he spoke quietly. "Yugi, for what you have done, I promise to help you as much as I possibly can tomorrow. I will defend you until the end, and act as your spirit guardian, since Yami has abandoned you. I swear this on the Millennium Ring itself."

"You don't have to," Yugi muttered weakly, clutching at his shoulder.

"But I do," Bakura said softly. "I owe you something, in return for saving my Hikari's life. Just accept the offer, Yugi, and put my mind at ease."

"Fine then...thanks, Bakura..." Yugi's voice was faint. He suddenly wavered on his feet and collapsed, exhausted. 

Bakura caught him just in time. He sighed, shaking his head. "Used too much of his energy at one time." Carefully, he took the young Hikari to his room, bandaging the wound on his shoulder before placing him in the bed. He then returned to his own Hikari's room, laying on a second bed and gazing up at the ceiling. 

Ryou was back. A mind thought to be as good as lost and dead, found once again by a stunningly powerful Pure Millennium Puzzle and it's Hikari owner. 

Perhaps Yugi Moto was not as bad as he had thought.

*****

HCG: ^_^ Fun to write.

Yami: I'm so...evil o_O;;

HCG: Yup.

Yami: Well...it's sorta cool to be the non-responsible one for once. I think I like the chapter ^_~

Yugi, Mokuba, & Tristen: O_O;;

HCG: ^_^;; 

Yugi: You don't really _mean _that, do you? I was DEAD in that!

Mokuba: Me too!

Yami: o_O;;...I think I'm going to leave now....

Karma: *holding a bulging door closed* Can't. Yami fan girls, remember? They love you even more for your evil-ness!

Yami: O_O;;

Slash: *assisting in holding door closed* I don't think I'll ever understand fan girls.

HCG: hmm....*smuggles Yami, Yugi, Mokuba, and Tristen out through a very large, suddenly-appearing air duct*

*fan girls burst into the room, but can't find any of their beloved characters. Whining, they all leave*

HCG: _ That was close. Alright, people, give me some reviews here! I need em! Oh, and also, did anybody notice the rating change? I changed it to PG-13 cause it's starting to get more violent. 

Karma: But interesting.

HCG: And sorry this was so long. I rather like it though. Alright, review before I go insane!


	7. Into the Maze of Pain

HCG: Aaaah, chapter 7! Do you know what this means?

Karma: um...no?

HCG: Well, there's only this chapter, along with two other chapters, until the entire fic is complete. Interesting, no?

Slash: Very ^_^

HCG: Hmm, yes. Now, lesse here, what've I got to say today? 

Kaiba: *waves hand impatiently*

HCG: Oh, right! In honor of the chapter, I've invited the whole "Negative Realm Sneaking Team" to view it. That's right...Kaiba, Ryou, and Bakura have all returned, _and _for the first time ever, introducing Joey!

Joey: ^_^ Hey!

Ryou: Hello, Guardian.

Bakura: *going through a pile of loot and not responding*

Kaiba: ¬_¬;;

HCG: o_O;; What's wrong with you, Kaiba?

Kaiba: *annoyed frown* My cool-ness in the fic got stolen.

Karma: What?

Kaiba: You see, for chapters four and five, I was the awesome, brave, determined, and not to mention cool character that everybody paid attention to. But _Joey _over there stole my spotlight!

Joey: Did not!

Kaiba: Did too!

Joey: What about Bakura, or Ryou? Half the last chapter was about them!

Kaiba: So? _Everybody _likes Ryou and Bakura. Whenever I get any attention, _you _steal it. 

Joey: Do not!

Kaiba: Do too..._mutt!!!_

Joey: YOU JERK!

Kaiba: LOOK WHO'S TALKING, YOU DUELING MONKEY!!

Slash: Well, I think you _BOTH_ SUCK!

*Joey, Kaiba, and Slash get in a three-way cartoonized fight, again with dust clouds and bright stars. Guardian, Karma, Ryou, and Bakura side-step the fight and continue talking some ways away*

Bakura: Idiotic mortals...

Karma: *helpfully* And one anteater.

HCG: ¬_¬;; Ooookay....so apparently these three are only best friends in their opposite Realms...but they don't work together too well in this Realm.

Ryou: *nodding* Hmm, yes...shall we get to the story?

HCG: *nodding* But first: we must thank the reviewers. Thanks to ALL of you who reviewed my story. I can't make a list anymore, because there are too many separate people, but I thank you all the same. 

Karma: *laughing* Hah, you should've _seen _Guardian's face when she saw the number of reviews change from 14 to 25. It was hilarious!

HCG: ¬_¬;; Thanks, Karma. *returning to reviewer topic* Anyway, thanks people! I worked really hard on that, and I appreciate all the kind reviews ^_^ *tosses T a large box of chocolate, and gives the rest of them more of Slash's large, ever-diminishing pile of loot--much to his annoyance* Also, to answer TZ's question of "Where is the _real _Yami?" Well, the answer is simple: he didn't get pulled through the portal like Yugi did, so he's still in the Real Realm. Question answered? 

Ryou: I should think so. 

HCG: Great! Now...*takes out her useful new writing tool, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Soundtrack* I know most of the songs aren't that good, but the instrumentals are great--that, and I like the "Kaiba songs" too.

*the fight comes to an abrupt halt, and Kaiba steps out of the rapidly clearing dust cloud* Kaiba: Really? _My _songs?

HCG: o_O;; Yeah...they sound good...

Kaiba: *turns to Joey, who is standing behind him* HAH! TAKE THAT, YOU LOOSER!

*another fight begins, this time between just Joey and Kaiba*

HCG: O_O;; ...um....ficcie...DISCLAIMER! *shoves Bakura forward*

Bakura: ....um...HCG does not own Yugioh or any of the characters in it....although Slash and Karma belong to her, and--*evil grin* if you try to take'em I'll send you to the Shadow Realm and--

HCG: ENOUGH!

Bakura: o_O;;

HCG: Story! First, notes:

/word/--a hikari to a yami

//word//--a yami to a hikari

__

italicized words are thoughts or dreams/memories

Again, recall that Ryou will call Yami Bakura a simple "Yami." Don't get him confused with Yami Yugi

Shadow Turned Light

Chapter 7: Into the Maze of Pain

Bakura woke with the sun shining brightly in his eyes, forcing him to squeeze them shut momentarily against the sudden blaze of light. After several seconds he re-opened them, then sat upright suddenly, feeling refreshed. 

For a second he found it surprising that he was still in his temporary physical form; usually, when he planned to rest, he returned to the Millennium Ring so that he conserve his energy. He wondered momentarily why he had kept his fake appearance, when he recalled what had happened during the night.

Ryou had been healed. 

The thought hit him like a bolt of lightning. He had never thought his aibou would be found, yet Yugi Moto had brought the boy out of the darkness in his mind and back into the light. He still couldn't believe it had happened. 

Smiling gently, Bakura glanced over at his hikari. The boy was sleeping on the second bed in the room. He no longer breathed raggedly, or moaned of the terrors in his head--no, he was free, and safe. 

Still smiling, the ancient tomb robber headed for the door quietly, trying not to disturb his slumbering other. He wanted to let his lighter side rest after everything he had been through, and to prepare for what would happen later that day.

He had just reached the door when he heard a feeble attempt at a thought being sent through his mind link. /...Yami?.../

Bakura was startled, at first. The thought was weak, true, but it was _there. _He hadn't heard his aibou try to talk to him in such a way for ages, beyond his pitiful cries for help that could not be given. Now, to hear an obviously lucid thought through the link, he suddenly felt a sense of relieved contentment. His charge was back, at last; he had not failed in his self-appointed duty to protect the younger one. 

//What is it, Ryou?// he asked through the link, stopping near the door. He turned to face his Light, still laying on the bed, and discovered the white-haired boy watching him with half-opened eyes.

/Wait up...one second.../ Ryou said slowly, fatigue filling his thoughts. He tried to lift himself off the bed, falling back with a sigh. /...ugh.../

Bakura walked over to him calmly, asking through the link, //What's the matter?//

/I just feel...so tired. Like I haven't...slept...in weeks. And like...my muscles...are made out of string.../

The tomb robber chuckled slightly. //It is to be expected. You used quite a bit of energy to follow Yugi out of that maze in your mind. I'm surprised you have any energy at all.//

/So am I...God, that was some hell.../ the boy blinked suddenly. /Did you say _Yugi?_/

The Ring spirit looked surprised. //Yes, I did. You recognized him last night, too. Don't you remember?//

/Not really.../ Ryou managed a weak laugh. /I don't really remember much at all, other than all those...those memories...starting to leave me alone. But...but how can _Yugi..._how could he have helped me? He's...dead.../ his thought broke off with a small wave of emotion, a mix of anger, fear, and sorrow.

//It's a long story, Aibou,// Bakura said hastily, wanting to get off the subject. //I'll tell you everything later. Right now, you need to get some rest.//

The white-haired hikari tried to sit up again, despite his darker side's protests. He managed to raise himself farther this time before flopping back into the sheets and pillows, tired once more. Deciding to try something else for the time being instead of wasting his energy trying to get up, Ryou spoke out loud instead. "I can't rest, Bakura. I know I feel tired, and I know I _should _sleep...but at the same time, I can't. I'm so restless that if I tried to doze off, I'd only use up more of my energy. I need to _move_."

The tomb robber changed to speaking verbally as well. "You shouldn't. You need as much rest as you can possibly get; we've got a huge mission today, and both of us need every scrap of strength we can possibly build up. Please, just get some rest."

The spirit's Light shook his head, voicing his opinions with a tired, yet stubborn voice, his British accent only increasing his headstrong thoughts. "I can't, Bakura, and that's a fact. I'm going to get up and move around whether it takes me all day or not."

The spirit sighed and rolled his eyes in frustration. "At least let me help, okay? You're so weak you would collapse as soon as you took a step."

Ryou smiled at his darker spirit's concern and nodded. "Very well, then."

Bakura's form shimmered and disappeared as he returned to the Ring. Seconds later, Ryou's body seemed to gain strength as the ancient thief took possession of it. 

//There. We're merged. I'll control most of you, but you'll still be able to see and hear everything.//

With souls bonded together, the Light and Dark beings left the room, still talking together in their mind link. Ryou bombarded his yami with questions the entire time, asking about what had happened after his accident. The ancient tomb robber was only too glad to answer the questions, delighted that his lighter side was back. 

The two of them entered the main room of the Opposition's base, Bakura still in control, for the most part. The resistance agent headed straight for one particular table, which had been separated from the others slightly so that it's occupants weren't bothered by the general bustle of the workers around the room. 

There were only two figures sitting at the table, Kaiba and Joey. Both had plates of breakfast food in front of them, as well as mugs of steaming liquid. Joey's plate was completely empty, as was his cup; Kaiba, however, had not eaten a single scrap of his food. The reason was soon clear; the maps of Yami's complex were in front of the two of them, and Kaiba was checking over the plans one last time with the assistance of his top agent. 

Bakura sat down calmly, across from Kaiba, and looked over the map as well. He had to admit, their plan was a risky one--even more so than their previous schemes--but he had no doubt they could pull it off.

"Getting ready?" he asked slowly, yawning despite himself. Kaiba's only answer was a nod before the teen CEO turned back to the map and marked another section with one of the nearby pens on the table. 

The ancient thief chuckled slightly before turning to Seto's plateful of food. He snatched it easily and began wolfing down the eggs and bacon, not caring about the teen's response to his food being stolen. Kaiba didn't even seem to notice; he went right on jotting down a few notes on one corner of the map as though it were the only thing that existed. 

/He _looks _like he's recovered from his whole ordeal,/ Ryou muttered through the mind link. 

//Don't be fooled,// Bakura thought back. //He only hides it well; he hasn't recovered by far.//

The three top Opposition agents sat in silence, the only sounds to be heard being the scratching of Kaiba's pen and the crunch of bacon from his plate as the tomb robber devoured it. 

Using the long stretch of quiet, the darker spirit explained carefully to his hikari Yugi's whole story, adding in the Negative Realm theories to finish the tale. Ryou seemed interested, asking several questions about the whole account. He was just about to ask about his sudden recovery and it's relation to Yugi when Kaiba spoke.

"Where is he?!" the CEO hissed, throwing down his pen in annoyance.

"Where's who?" Joey asked, frowning.

"Yugi!" the Blue Eyes spat, staring at the living quarters corridor angrily. "He _knows _when our mission is starting...he should be up by now!" 

"I would give him a break," Bakura said calmly, slowly. "He has a reason, and a good one at that."

"It had _better _be good!" Seto was plainly annoyed from the way he was shifting in his chair, as if he was planning on standing up suddenly.

"Yugi exerted a large majority of his magic last night to save Ryou's life," the tomb robber said, his voice almost making him sound as if _he _was in charge. "In fact, my aibou was on the brink of death, and he could not escape the mind trap Yami placed him in. But Yugi was able to use the pure magic of the Millennium Puzzle to find my hikari's soul, and to bring him out of the maze the Pharaoh built. Ryou has, in short, returned. Unfortunately, the whole experience has drained both Ryou and Yugi of their energy, so he has probably not recovered from the loss of so much strength."

Kaiba looked shocked. "He _healed _Ryou? But...but I thought...that he was lost!"

"Not any longer," Bakura said, the ghost of a smile on his face. 

"I don't believe it!" Joey said, grinning. "Ryou's back! Man, this other Yugi shows up, and suddenly everything's going our way!"

"Indeed," Seto said calmly, though his eyes still held shock as he glanced at the tomb robber for a second. "If that is the case, I suppose we can allow him to sleep a little bit longer. He _does _deserve it, if he was able to save the Lost..." he trailed off, though his thought was obvious. 

Ryou must have seen it too, because he whispered through the mind link, /He's thinking about Mokuba./

//I know...but no matter how much power Yugi may have within that pure Puzzle, the power of life over death does not reside in one Item alone.//

/I feel sorry for him./

The mind link conversation cut short as Kaiba returned to his original work of looking over the maps spaced out before him. The other two agents gathered more of the charts and other scraps of paper together, going over notes and preparing for the day's work ahead of them. And even then, they didn't think they'd ever finish getting ready. 

They didn't have enough time to ever fully prepare for what lay in store for them, and they knew it. All they could do was get their few defenses and plans together, placing all their hope and trust into one boy that they knew...and did not know. 

_Could _they trust him? They were putting all their faith into this plan, and everything--_everything_--resided on the boy. If he didn't come through for them, everything would fail.

For once in life, Bakura wished he could get a straight answer out of their problems.

*****

_Shadows. Shadows all around him, never going away, building the very existence of the Realm he was in. They followed him, huge, powerful, and deadly, stalking him like a tiger after it's wounded prey. _

Oh, god, _he thought to himself, feeling desperate terror building within his very heart and soul. _Not this again. Anything but this again.

_"You know why we call on you again..." The voice, dripping with deadly truth, stabbed through the Realm like a knife. _

"My destiny...that's what it all is, isn't it? You want me to follow my destiny..."

"Exactly."

"But...but I am! I'm here, in the Negative Realm! I'm helping them, just like you said!"

"Not quite. Not quite. You still have much to do, Yugi Moto."

"The mission..." the boy's voice was soft, fear weaving around it, easily noticeable in the Shadow Realm. All dark feelings are noticeable in the Shadow Realm. 

"Do not mistake your Destiny. You have come to the Negative Realm, true...but while you have promised your help, you have not given it."

"But I will!"

"So you say. But remember this: the final test is still to come. Do not be tempted. It will be a terrible challenge set before you...but do not allow yourself to fall into the trap. Your destiny will always be destroyed that way."

"What?" The boy was confused. "But...I don't understand!" 

"You will understand when the time comes, and not before. You are never meant to know before." With this said, the huge, nearly solid shadows retreated, backing away into the depths of the Shadow Realm and it's darkness.

"Wait!" the young boy yelled. "Come back! I still have questions! WAIT!" 

The shadows refused to listen. They dispersed into the Shadow Realm completely, disappearing within seconds. But then...

The boy jumped in shock as the shadows twisted to form a shape. It was an illusion, he realized, but only momentarily--for at the next moment the form became more recognizable.

It started with simply a pair of eyes, violet in color, with a cold and dangerous look in them. Golden bangs became more visible next, followed by the rest of the face and body. Somebody the boy knew very well.

Yami.

The spirit illusion faced him for only a few moments, a sickeningly evil grin twisting on his face. The Sennen Eye glowed on his forehead, giving his appearance a more powerful look. 

"Those Destined will soon meet their deaths!" he spat, before leaping forward, Millennium Puzzle glowing dangerously...

Yugi shot upright with a gasp, finding himself sitting in bed. He breathed heavily, staring around the room in surprise. 

_How did I get here?_ the Hikari thought quietly to himself. The last thing he remembered was talking to Bakura, and then...and then everything had gone black. _Must have passed out,_ he thought to himself. 

He sighed to himself and turned his attention to the dream. It had been another Shadowdream, he knew that much. Much more terrifying than the last one that had come to him. But what scared him the most was how Yami had acted in it. True, it was an illusion, but it didn't change the startling fact that he had _attacked _Yugi. 

The Hikari sighed and shook his head in frustration. He didn't want to think about how his darker self had acted, for he knew that his Yami really _would _attempt to kill him if he had the chance. He snapped his eyes shut tightly, trying to filter the Shadowdream out of his head. 

It wasn't the only dream that had visited him in the night, either. There had been others, each one getting stranger--and scarier--as they flashed through his mind. Bakura, holding a bloody Duel Monsters card, easily identified as the Change of Heart. Kaiba, trapped in a cage made of glass walls, staring out of his prison with a tortured expression. And Yami, reaching down to help his aibou up from where he had fallen, only to change suddenly with a snarl of anger, slapping Yugi's hand aside. But what was strange about all of these dreams was that they all seemed real, as if they were trying to tell him something.

The young Hikari groaned in a mix of emotions. He didn't want to have to deal with this; he _shouldn't _have to deal with it. But he could not avoid his destiny, now clearly set before him. 

_The destiny that will be the death of me,_ the boy couldn't help thinking to himself, recalling the Shadowdream. 

He sighed and rolled off the bed, heading for the door after quickly snatching his backpack from a nearby chair. Turning and heading down for the main room of the Opposition's base, he soon became lost in thought. He found himself running over all of the memories he had half-received from Ryou's mind. They were horrible, every single one; he couldn't imagine how the people in this Negative Realm could stand living there. 

He was broken from his thoughts as he reached the main room and heard an angry voice from a table in one of the corners of the room. 

"If Yugi's not out here in ten minutes, Joey, I'm sending you to wake him up!"

"Aww, com'mon, give him a break. You heard what Bakura said, he's--"

"I don't give a damn! I want to get moving within the hour, or all our plans will have to be re-written. Yami's spy network gets news quick."

Yugi trotted up to the table, smiling, and said calmly, "Don't worry about waking me. I'm here."

Kaiba, the occupant of the first voice, turned to look at him in surprise. Joey glanced at his friend, grinning slightly, before returning to gazing over the map on the table. Bakura, the final person at the table, only stared at him silently, though his eyes had a thankful look in them. 

Kaiba spoke first. "Are you ready for the mission? Do you need anything before we begin?"

Yugi shook his head. "No, I don't think so." He took a second glance at the teen CEO and smiled slightly. Seto was wearing his usual trench coat, a deep, rich blue in color. He laughed at seeing such a familiar item in this Realm--that was, until Kaiba noticed his stare and explained that the heavy material of the coat made it easy to hide several sheathed knives up his arms. He proved his point by flicking one of his hands quickly, letting one of the small-bladed weapons slip into his hands; it looked as though it had simply appeared out of thin air. 

"I'm nearly as good a knife-slinger as Bakura," he said, as if explaining that the sky was blue. 

"Better," the tomb robber muttered slowly, as if he regretted saying it. "You've gotten far better than I."

"I doubt it," Kaiba said, raising an eyebrow. He flourished his hand again, and the blade disappeared into one of it's hidden sheaths. 

Yugi blinked in surprise. "But...what happened to your gun?"

"I wouldn't bring a gun on a mission like this...it's far too noticeable. Even the knives are hard to hide, though I can do it with some difficulty."

"Oh." the young Hikari sighed. 

There was silence for several seconds before Bakura broke through it. "Yugi," he said quietly, "Ryou would like to talk to you."

"What?" the boy gasped, turning towards the tomb robber quickly. "But he should be resting!"

"I know," the thief replied. "I have tried to make him rest, but he flatly refuses to."

Yugi raised his eyebrows slightly. _Hmm...so Ryou gains a stubborn streak in this Realm..._

"Well...I guess it'd be okay for him to talk for a while," the Hikari said, shrugging. 

Bakura nodded. "Wait a few seconds," he said calmly, before closing his eyes. 

The Millennium Ring glowed brightly, and suddenly it's owner slumped a bit. He looked tired, but when he raised his head there was a look of determination in his eyes. 

"Hey, Yugi," Ryou said shakily, leaning slightly on the table for support.

"Ryou! I'm glad to see you're safe again." Every word in Yugi's sentence was genuine, and it showed on his face. His violet eyes seemed to shine in happiness, and he was smiling. 

"Thanks to you, I am," the white-haired Hikari said slowly. "That's really what I wanted to talk to you about. I want to thank you, for helping me escape that hellhole. I couldn't get out...no matter how much I tried, I couldn't get out. I could tell that Bakura was searching for me, but I could never be found...until you came along, that is."

Yugi nodded slowly. "Anything to help a friend," he said, eyes alight with determination. 

"Thank you...thank you so much...." Ryou sighed, leaning forward on the table more. "God, I'm tired."

The other Hikari moved forward a pace, concern on his face. "Maybe you'd better rest, Ryou. Let Bakura take over again." 

"...right..." the white-haired boy nodded, fatigue filling his face. "...I will...thanks, Yugi, and good luck. I hope you reach your Realm again." The Ring around his neck glowed once more, and within seconds Bakura had returned. 

Kaiba and Joey stared with twin surprised looks at the tomb robber. Kaiba was the first to speak. "It _is _true...Yugi, I think we really _can _expect your presence to change everything in the Opposition." Joey nodded in agreement, staring at his friend with respect. 

"Did you think I was lying?" Bakura muttered, annoyed, as he stood up from the table. 

Kaiba shrugged. "Not exactly, but you must admit that hearing of such an amazing recovery is rather unheard of."

The thief shrugged. "It is of no matter. Now...shall we begin the mission?" He stared at each of the other three teenagers with a cold, serious look on his face. Kaiba nodded, as did Joey, who was also clenching a fist. Yugi did not hesitate to nod as well. 

"Then let us begin." 

Kaiba stepped calmly to the head of the four of them, reserving the right to lead the group as Head of the Opposition. Bakura came next, walking in a calm and in-control fashion, followed by Yugi, who did not share his confident gait. Last came Joey, who moved with his face set and his eyes shining with determination. 

They exited the base, leaving by the giant steel double doors and walking down the long, dark corridor. Yugi could barely see the others in front of him, the shadows pressed so close around him. It reminded him uneasily of his Shadowdream, and he wished the odd foreboding feeling in the pit of his stomach would disappear. 

After what seemed like an age, they reached the end of the shadowy corridor and stepped into the light. The sun was blazing high in the noonday sky, beating down on the four companions in a fury. 

Absent-mindedly, Yugi looked over his shoulder, nearly yelling in shock. The building they had just exited was the Game Shop, and they were standing in front of the emergency back door. 

Kaiba must have noticed his surprise, because he said smugly, "Never would have thought of it, would you? That corridor that we just went through is underground a majority of the way from the Game Shop to the base. Yami can't find or trace it, and he certainly hasn't thought to come back here to check for any clues."

"No, I...I never thought of it," the Hikari whispered in surprise, staring at what had once been his house. 

"Come on, keep moving," Bakura hissed, his eyes darting up and down the street for signs of people watching. There was nobody on the road at all, much to his satisfaction. 

The four of them turned and walked towards the center of the city, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. Joey may have fit into the groups of people traveling the streets easily enough, but Bakura and Kaiba were far too noticeable, and Yugi was even more so. 

It took nearly an hour to make their way from the Game Shop to the city's center, but it was time well spent, for nobody noticed them. Once they made it to the general area that they aimed for, Bakura took the lead, bringing them all to a selection of buildings nearby. 

The area Yugi found himself staring at was enough to strike terror into the hearts of even the bravest of people. There were several small, house-sized buildings surrounding one gigantic skyscraper that reached upwards to the heavens as if trying to tear it open. Though the overall appearance of the buildings themselves were not too terrifying, it was the one addition to the building that really caused the heart to grow cold with fear. 

On the side of the skyscraper was one easily-seen symbol--the eye that sat on the front of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle. 

There was a fence with a gate running around the skyscraper and it's surrounding, small buildings. The gate looked almost golden, and seemed to shine slightly in the noon sun. It was to this gate that the tomb robber lead them, striding forward confidently, as if he knew he was going to achieve victory at something. The others followed him, carefully scanning the surrounding areas for any observers. Not surprisingly, there were none; nobody wanted to come near the building if they could help it. 

Bakura studied the gate carefully for a few moments, staring at the lock with a frown. The Egyptian eye symbol, part of the lock, stared back at him without emotion. Slowly, he bent down and touched one of the pointers of the Millennium Ring to the middle of the eye. There was a brief flash of light before the gate swung open with a groan. 

The tomb robber snorted. "He must think me an amateur," he said with distain. "That magic seal was simple to break with my experience."

Kaiba shrugged. "Remember, he thinks he's weakened you."

Bakura rolled his eyes slightly before leading them through the gate. When all four of them were inside the premises, he swung the gate shut with a click. 

Kaiba, Joey, and Yugi had already spread out to check each of the surrounding buildings carefully before trying to get to the main building. Some of them were guard stations, which could pose a problem for the intruders if they were caught running across the grounds. 

Within minutes the four had regrouped, pointing out the various buildings to watch out for. They slunk around the guard stations carefully, staying within the shadows as before to decrease their chances of being caught. Finally, with one last mad dash, they reached the entrance to the sky scraper that served as Yami's base. 

Joey backed up slightly, swerving his head this way and that in order to check for any watching eyes. "This is where I leave you guys," he said slowly, almost regretfully. "I'll be patrolling around here, watching those guard stations out. I'll warn you if there's any problems, don't worry. But don't hesitate to ask if you need my help, alright?"

"Thanks, Joey," Yugi said quietly, staring up at his friend. "I may not see you in this Realm again, if everything goes according to plan, so I want to thank you right now for everything you've done to help me out."

"Fergetaboudit," Joey said, smiling a bit as he slurred the words together in his Boston accent. "Good luck, Yuge. Nice to see ya again." With that, he turned and strode off along the side of the building, moving with an alert stride that suggested he was ready for anything.

Tearing his eyes from his last glimpse at his friend, Yugi turned and followed his final two companions into the skyscraper. 

Almost as soon as they entered, both Kaiba and Bakura slid into equally skilled, stealthily paces. They both looked as if they were used to the position they were putting themselves into and knew how to handle it. Yugi followed them both, trying to be as sneaky as they were, but not even closely resembling the natural skill both the Blue Eyes and Ring spirit possessed. 

They slid down the corridor carefully, all three of them watching the doors and halls surrounding them. There were no people around to give them away on the first floor, however; it was deserted and looked as if it had been for years. 

The second and third floors were much the same, devoid of all life in a rather eerie fashion. Yugi hoped feverishly that it would last the entire way up; Yami resided on the fiftieth floor, and it was some distance away. However, the fourth floor brought them some trouble. There were two guards in the hallways that the trio needed to travel across in order to get to the next flight of stairs. Both looked tough and ready for action. 

"They're mine," the Hikari heard Kaiba hiss, before the CEO leaped forward from the doorway the they were all standing in. The teen lashed out with his right fist in a vicious attack at the first of the two black-suited men. The guard was surprised, but he managed to block the fist from hammering him in the side of his head. With a grunt, he shoved Kaiba backwards, away from him, before shooting one of his own, much larger fists towards the teen's head. 

The Blue Eyes didn't even bat an eyelid. He ducked downward, allowing the punch to shoot harmlessly over his head. From there, it was all over for the first guard; within seconds Kaiba had knocked him out completely with a strong uppercut to the jaw and a second punch into the side of his head. 

The second man had tried to rush up on the teen from behind while he was busy with his partner. Seto didn't even bother to turn around, but instead jerked his elbow backwards and slammed it into the guard's stomach. The man crumpled with a loud grunt of pain, and was out cold in the span of only a few moments more as his opponent kicked him in the side of the head. 

Bakura leaped forward as soon as the two guards were completely unconscious, grasping one by the collar and dragging him to the nearest closet. Kaiba followed with the second man, shoving him into the small storage space with the first of the guards. He slammed the door shut and turned to run down the hall towards the staircase as if nothing had happened. 

Yugi hurried to catch up, asking the Ring spirit a question as he did so. "Why did you lock them in there?"

"Can't have evidence laying around this time, unlike when we were leaving the prison. We need our entrance to be as secret as possible."

"Oh." the young Hikari nodded in understanding as the three of them reached the stairs, trooping up two more flights before reaching the case's end. 

He had wondered about the stairs at first, and how they usually only went up two or three flights at a time before ending. Kaiba explained that the building used to be built differently, with staircases that lead up to higher stories, but Yami had rebuilt pieces of it to slow down intruders--and it seemed to be working. The stairs were spaced out in all sections of the floors, forcing the trio to run through the hallways and giving them the chance to be caught if they were not careful. 

Guards were not the only challenges that awaited them, Yugi realized, as they reached the ninth level. Kaiba had started to charge down the corridor they were met with when Bakura suddenly shouted for him to stop. 

"What is it?" the CEO asked slowly, turning to face the tomb robber. 

"Magic trap," the dark spirit replied curtly, moving forward to stand a few paces ahead of Kaiba. "Right were Pegasus said it would be."

Yugi looked around the hallway, confused. He saw nothing other than ordinary-looking hallways and ceilings. 

Suddenly Bakura's Millennium Ring started to glow, shining with a light so powerful that it was painful to the eyes. The light seemed to flow forward, down the hall, before disappearing entirely. What it left behind, though, was startling.

There was a huge mass of what looked almost like threads, twining and entwining around the hall in front of them. It looked somewhat like a spider-web, the way every small string was woven around countless others. But they weren't _threads, _exactly...or at least not what one would consider thread. The web was made out of strings of_ magic_, glistening brightly with disturbing innocence. 

"Have you disabled it yet?" Kaiba asked irritably, tapping his foot.

Bakura noticed Yugi's shocked expression and said calmly, "He can't see them. He doesn't have a Millennium Item with which to sense them...but _you _do." Turning to Seto, he muttered, "give me a few seconds..."

Yugi watched in amazement as the tomb robber formed what looked like a solid blade of light with his Ring, sending it slicing through the thin strings of magic and snapping them all. Each time a thread was destroyed, it vanished into thin air as if it didn't exist.

"There," the thief said easily, moving forward. "Destroyed, and Yami shouldn't sense the disappearance at all. We're lucky I noticed that in time, though; the trap would have caught us and notified Yami instantly that we were in the area."

They moved off down the hallway again, each noticeably becoming more observant as they walked. 

It had gone on in such a manner for at least three more floors. The magic traps became stronger and harder to identify, sometimes even with more than one for every floor. Bakura had broken into a light sweat from all the energy he was using to disable the magical energies, but he went on gamely. Guards were also showing up in the halls more often, between the different magical traps. Kaiba handled these when he could, although occasionally he would need the assistance of the tomb robber when the men were more numerous. 

On the thirteenth hall, the trio came upon their first technical obstacle. As soon as they stepped through the door leading to the staircase, they found themselves facing a gigantic steel door, filling the entire width of the hallway, with a computer sitting next to it. The computer was connected to the door, and it was obvious that it was the computer that would open it. 

Kaiba strode forward with easy grace, his fingers snapping in place at the keyboard so quick it was hard to notice at first. He was typing within seconds, bringing up screenfuls of data easily and muttering to himself. Suddenly he barked a laugh. "Password?" he chuckled, fingers clicking over the keys easily. "What kind of a fool does he take me for?" 

Within moments the computer sounded a beep, and the door swung open silently. Kaiba laughed for a few moments before slipping through the door confidently, muttering, "Easier than taming a Blue Eyes White Dragon."

It was much the same for the next ten floors, although the traps and obstacles in their way grew increasingly tougher. Kaiba had been forced to re-wire several access panels and computers before he could gain entrance to the next hallway for the three of them. Bakura was also showing the strain of disabling so many magical traps, and Yugi found himself allowing the tomb robber to draw on large amounts of his pure Millennium Puzzle's power to assist him. There seemed to be no end to the guards, as well; there was an endless supply of them, and it was wearing both Kaiba and Bakura down just to defeat them. Yugi had asked if there was some way he could help, but they both told him to save his energy for facing Yami and would not allow him to do much more than loan Bakura his magic. 

Once the trio hit the twenty-fourth floor, however, things began to get much dirtier. 

They had already broken through another magic trap, as well as taken down three more guards, when the communicator hanging at Kaiba's belt beeped suddenly. Allowing Yugi and Bakura to handle hiding the unconscious guards, he snatched the small device and hastily turned it on.

"What is it?" he spat, his voice far more venomous than he meant it to be.

"Are you guys okay?" Joey's voice, full of static, reached them over the communicator. He sounded worried, and vaguely relieved that Kaiba had answered. 

"Yes! And why are you contacting us if you don't have any information? Didn't I tell you to play the watchdog?" Yugi winced at Kaiba's choice of words and mentally prepared for the explosion that would come from Joey, but he never heard it.

"I am!" the boy's voice sounded frantic now. "Kaiba, I _do _have information! Yami somehow knows that you guys are all in there--I'm not sure how--and he's sending his men out after you. He knows roughly where you are in the building, too. Guys, you have to get out of there!"

"We _aren't _abandoning such an important mission," Kaiba snapped. "Especially not when we've finally tossed aside all our cover stories and showed our true strength."

"But, Kaiba, listen! He's sending the Special Guard after you! Bakura's magic will be useless, and you'll be weakened!"

"It's a chance we'll have to take," the CEO snapped into the communicator. "This _has _to work, or the entire Opposition will be destroyed." 

Joey started to say something more, but at that moment the trio heard the murmur of voices from behind them. Snapping the communicator off, the Blue Eyes shoved it onto his belt and ran down the hallway, motioning for the others to follow him. 

The three of them whipped up two flights of stairs and turned the corner into a brand new hall. Bakura scanned for magical wards and found only two; he destroyed them quickly, though not as carefully as before in his sudden nervousness. The guards had disappeared, and so the trio was allowed to rush down the hall, unhindered. 

Just as the end of Kaiba's trench coat whipped around the doorway leading to the staircases, at least a dozen guards appeared where the three of them had first entered the hall. 

"Somebody's down there!" one of the men shouted. There was the sound of pounding feet a second later as all twelve men leaped forward down the hall, trying to catch their quarry. 

Kaiba and Bakura, with their longer legs, pounded up the next flight of steps much quicker than Yugi did, easily out-distancing him. He arrived at the top of the stairs in surprise, looking around for his two comrades as he ran into the halls. He could hear the guards down on the first flight of stairs now, yelling loudly as they hammered up the steps. They hadn't actually _seen _any of the intruders, but they were pretty sure that they were on the trail of one. 

Darting nervously into the hallway, Yugi glanced about quickly for his friends. He didn't see them, and began to worry that he had been separated from them. 

The guards were behind him now. He turned to run down one of the halls...when a hand grabbed him from behind, smothering his yelp of surprise as it covered his mouth. 

"Be _quiet!_" his captive hissed. Yugi turned to look over his shoulder and found Kaiba standing over him, eyes darting towards the stair entrance warily. The CEO suddenly grasped the young Hikari by the collar and dragged him into a nearby room, closing the door silently. 

As soon as they were in the room, Kaiba released his friend and stood with his ear against the door, listening. Yugi turned to look around the room and noticed Bakura there as well. 

"I apologize," the tomb robber whispered, so as not to be heard by the guards outside. "We forgot that you were not as fast as us."

"It's okay," the Hikari said quietly, turning back to look at Kaiba. The teen was listening intently, his steely eyes focused and grim. Suddenly he stood upright, hissing, "They've gone by, but for how long I can't say. We'd best leave now, while we can." 

The three of them slipped out the door quietly, slinking along the hallway with sly grace. There was only one magical trap for Bakura to disable, as well as a computer panel for Kaiba to re-wire, making the corridor relatively simple to pass by. 

They had nearly made it to the next set of stairs when a guard whipped around the corner ahead of them. He started in surprise at the sight of the trio rushing towards him, but recovered enough to yell. "Alert! Alert! Intruders, here, on--"

Seto didn't even bother to slow down. Even as he ran, he lashed out at the man, dropping him where he stood. The guard crumpled in a heap; none of the three bothered to hide him as they darted for the staircase. If the man had sounded the alert, then there was only so much time that they had, and they needed to get as far as they could with it.

They hammered up the first set of steps, each of them panting with exhaustion, when they heard the sounds above them. At least two flights of steps above them, there had to be as many as two dozen guards coming down to meet them. 

"Damn it!" Kaiba cursed silently, staring upward at the stairs above them. 

"They haven't seen us yet, have they?" Yugi panted, reaching the top of the first flight. 

"No," Kaiba replied, avoiding traveling up the second flight of steps. Instead, he veered off towards the door to the level they were on, the other two following his lead. 

They blasted down the first hallway at an incredible speed, turning into at least two more adjoining corridors and hurrying down those as well. There was only one magical trap in the way this time; Bakura practically exploded it out of the way as they ran, shattering the magic onto all sides. They whipped around another corner into the next corridor...

And found themselves facing a dead end.

"NO!" Kaiba hissed, whirling frantically to face the direction they had just come from. Unfortunately, they could hear the pounding of feet down the other corridors, as well as the shouts of the guards. 

"Alright, they're here somewhere. Just spread out and keep looking. As soon as you find one, destroy him, on the Great Leader's orders!"

"They're onto us," Bakura hissed angrily, peeking around the corner skillfully without being seen. He could spot a few of the guards running back and forth along the end of the second corridor--and he froze as he saw the symbol on the front of each of their suits, the same eye symbol on the front of the Millennium Puzzle.

"Special Guards!" he growled, pulling back to look at Kaiba and Yugi. The CEO shook his head, groaning. 

Yugi, however, asked quietly, "Why can't you just banish them to the Shadow Realm?" he hated the idea of it, but if it was necessary....

"Because they're Special Guards," the tomb robber muttered back. "Yami has trained them to use what little magic they were born with to resist my own, more powerful magic. They can make the Ring's powers backfire on me; I could very well end up sending you and Kaiba to the Shadow Realm instead."

"That's not good," Yugi muttered. If that was the case, then his Millennium Puzzle wouldn't be much help either. 

Bakura had turned back to the Blue Eyes and was speaking quietly, so as not to be heard. "Listen to them. They're not going to give up without finding a target to hunt down. We'll never get out of here!"

"A target," Kaiba muttered darkly. "They want a target." He sighed and shook his head, as if clearing away thoughts. "Very well then, if they want a target they can have one."

The tomb robber's eyebrows raised. "You don't mean you plan to--"

"I do," the CEO interrupted. "There's a change in plans now. You'll have to get Yugi to Yami's rooms by yourself, _at any cost._ Do you understand me? Don't give up."

Bakura nodded silently, staring at Kaiba with new respect. The CEO sighed and turned to Yugi. "Good luck. I hope you succeed in finding your way back home." 

"Wait, what are you doing?!" Yugi hissed, his voice coming perilously close to breaking over a whisper. 

"Buying your way out of here," Seto growled, a dangerous tone filling his voice. His hand waved with a flourish, and instantly he had one of his hidden knives in his hand. 

Realization suddenly dawned on the young Hikari. "Wait! You can't! They'll kill you!"

But it was too late; Kaiba had already leaped around the corner, running full tilt, with knife in hand. 

He darted towards the rapidly gathering guards, yelling all the while to get their attention. The men turned towards him, some unlimbering guns. Unfortunately for them, they weren't quick enough in doing so. 

Kaiba hit the first one in a rush, jamming his knife into the guard's shoulder and causing him to drop his gun. A flicker of his hands, and two more knives had leaped into them. He swung them dangerously, slicing left and right, leaving a path of bloody scars in his wake. He was slowly but surely carving his way through the mass of men, most of which could not fire the threatening guns for fear of shooting a partner. 

Kaiba, nearly out of the throng, dived forwards one last time. With a ragged yell of, "FOR _MOKUBA!_" he slashed outwards with one of his knives, pinning the final gunman to the wall by his jacket. He snatched the gun from the man's quivering hands and ran full-out, blasting around the corner. 

The other men followed with shouts of, "He's escaping! GET HIM!" A few of the gunmen whipped around the corner, following their quarry angrily...into a far less populated area. 

Within seconds all the guards were around the corner; only a few moments after that there was the sound of three rapid gunshots. Yugi heard a cheer from the guards, and cold dread filled his heart. Had they _shot _Kaiba?

There was a long period of silence; the guards had left the floor completely, figuring their job complete. If one thing was for certain, Kaiba had achieved his goal: to get his comrades an open chance at Yami. 

"Is he...okay...do you think?" Yugi asked shakily of the Ring spirit beside him. 

"Of course he is. The Blue Eyes isn't fool enough to get himself shot like that. He'd be laughing his fool head off if he saw us worrying about him now," the tomb robber snapped, staring in the direction the CEO had gone in. 

The Hikari nodded shakily, trying to force his thoughts into the same optimistic manner. _Bakura said he's fine. Don't worry about him._

Bakura _did _know about the Seto Kaiba in _this _Realm better than Yugi did, after all. Yet something pulled at his mind...

Bakura's voice. There had been worry in his voice. The ancient tomb robber had only half-believed what he was saying.

He was more trusting than Yugi, then. The boy didn't believe his words at all. 

*****

HCG: Ahh, I think that should wrap it up for the day. (Takes off headphones, where she was listening to more of the Yu-Gi-Oh soundtrack). Oh, and YumeTakato, I was surprised how close your idea came to my actual plan for this chapter ^_~ Good job! 

Karma: You've written another cliff-hanger, I see.

HCG: Yup ^_^

Kaiba: *who has long since gotten out of his fight with Joey to read the story* O_O!!! WHAT HAPPENS TO ME?!?!

HCG: Aww, I can't say that...yet...

Kaiba: *having a heart attack* WHAT HAPPENS?! *shakes HCG by the shoulders* I DON'T WANT TO DIE!

HCG: o_O;; um...Kaiba...are you feeling okay?

Ryou: Of course he is. He's just happy that he got to be the main character people focused on again. 

HCG: Aaah...

Joey: ^_^ I liked my part too.

HCG: ...Even the watchdog part?

Joey: ¬_¬;; never mind.

HCG: You know what's funny? I wrote that entire last section, with Kaiba's whole great act, while listening to the track _Exodia _on the Yu-Gi-Oh soundtrack. *cracks up laughing*

Kaiba: O_O;; Eeeeevilllllllllll!

Joey: *also laughing* Hah, you just can't escape it, Kaiba! Exodia HAUNTS YOU!

Kaiba: *growl* Why you little...*starts chasing Joey around*

HCG: Alright, people, that wraps up Chapter 7! Nice and long...again...tell me what you thought of it! REVIEW!

*loud fighting sounds in the background as Joey and Kaiba start attacking each other for the THIRD time*

HCG: ¬_¬;; must go break those two up. See you...and REVIEW! PLEAAAASE! 


	8. Encounter the Shadow

We focus on Guardian and her two character muses. All the guests from the previous chapter have left, except for Kaiba, who is clinging to HCG and trying to get her to tell him what happened to him in the fiction. HCG looks annoyed, and Karma and Slash are trying hard not to laugh.

Kaiba: WHAT HAPPENS TO ME?!?!

HCG: For the last time, you have to WAIT to see! *shakes Kaiba off and tries to run for it*

Kaiba: *falling to the ground from being shaken off, and clinging to HCG's foot* NO! ANSWER MEEEEEEE!

HCG: o_O;; Karma? Help?!

Karma: *laughing too hard to talk*

HCG: *growling at Karma* Darn you! *turns to Kaiba* If you don't get off right now I'll NEVER answer you!

*Kaiba immediately lets go and stands up, waiting eagerly for HCG to answer him* Well?

HCG: Still not telling.

Kaiba: _;; I don't want to die...

Karma: Come on, Kaiba, it's not like she'd kill off one of her favorite characters.

Slash: Well, she _did _kill Yugi, and she's ranked him fourth on the "cool characters" list. And she got rid of Mokuba too, and she thinks he's a cool character. And she got rid of Tristen also, and she respects him. And as for Ryou--

Karma: ¬_¬;; I get the point.

HCG: Are you guys going to talk all day?

Slash: Until you start the fic.

Kaiba: And start it soon! 

HCG: *to Kaiba* I can't start until my writing mood comes back. So...make yourself useful. 

Kaiba: How?

HCG: My CD player's batteries are dead, and until I find new ones I have no music to help me write. So...*tosses him a guitar* Play some music to get my spirits up.

Kaiba: *catching guitar* What makes you think I can play?

HCG: I just wrote it into your profile, that's why.

Kaiba: *shrugs* Alright. *tinkers with guitar a few seconds, then starts playing and singing _Hero _(from Spider-man) perfectly*

Slash: Isn't it a muse's job to inspire the author?

HCG: You're right, Slash! *shoves him over next to Kaiba* You've got a great voice. Help him out.

Slash: *looks surprised, then sinks into the music and sings along nicely*

Karma: So I suppose Kaiba's acting as a temporary muse?

HCG: Why not? And as for my _other _muse...*stares at Karma*

Karma: *sighs, then goes over to the other two and helps out by playing the drums*

HCG: Aaah, music! ^_^ You guys are great.

*the three finish up _Hero _and take a quick break*

Kaiba: No wonder. I'm the main singer ^_~ *breaks into playing _Running Away _by Hoobastank*

HCG: Whatever you say. Now, to the fic! I shall do the disclaimer...I don't own Yu-gi-Oh, or Kaiba, or _Hero, _or _Running Away, _or...well, I just don't own a hell of a lot of stuff o_O;;

But Karma and Slash are MINE! 

Now, Notes!

um..._italics are thoughts or dreams/memories_...and that's about it...

Shadow Turned Light

Chapter 8: Encounter the Shadow

Yugi stood in the dead-end hallway for several moments, not moving from pure shock. He could not believe what he had just heard...or he wanted desperately _not _to believe it. 

Gun shots. Three gun shots. That meant for almost certain that Kaiba had been hit, and from the way the guards had cheered, he was probably dead as well. 

_Kaiba had a gun, too, _he reminded himself. Perhaps he was taking his worry just a bit too far...

Bakura jerked him out of his thoughts by tugging on his wrist, pulling him around the corner and out of the blocked hallway. "Come on," he hissed. "We have to get out of here quickly, before they think to come back here and check for others."

Yugi nodded silently, not daring to speak. The tomb robber probably assumed he was just trying to be quiet, but in reality the Hikari felt like he was going to be sick. A good friend of his may have just died only a few yards from him, and it was a thought that made his stomach churn. 

The Ring spirit kept his hand clamped around Yugi's wrist, half dragging him through the hallways to the next set of stairs. He was talking as they moved, though very quietly. "We're on level thirty right now; we have to make it up twenty more flights unnoticed. No matter what, we can't give ourselves away, or we're not going to make it out of here alive."

_And then Kaiba's sacrifice would be in vain,_ the Hikari found himself thinking. He wouldn't stand for that. He silently resolved that he would do his very best to help achieve their goals, no matter how many risks it took. 

The two of them reached the stairwell and quietly made their way up the steps, all the while listening carefully for sounds that would show there were guards around. They reached the top of the stairs without any trouble and darted out into the hallways. 

There were no men in the corridor as they ran down it, though Yugi could see why easily. They were probably gloating over Kaiba's defeat, and were abandoning their caution because of it. He doubted that they thought there could still be a few more threatening people in the building. He didn't enjoy their reason for being absent, but if it gave them an advantage...he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity and complain.

There _was _one magical trap, and a strong one at that. After Bakura revealed it in another stunning display of light, it resembled a what looked like a wall of magic. A shield, the tomb robber explained, as he broke through the energy stretched out before them, that would not allow an intruder to walk farther. 

They passed through the rest of the hall easily and entered the doorway leading to the next flight of steps, taking them up four more stories before they came to an end. Again, they passed through a corridor that was absent of men, although there were two more magic traps for Bakura to disable. 

It went on in a similar way for six more levels, with traps that were relatively easy to break through, and almost no men. However, once they reached the fortieth floor, things began to get more difficult. 

It started when Yugi and his Ring spirit comrade reached the end of the hallway and found themselves facing a large access panel, the only way to open the steel door that lead to the stairwells. The tomb robber cursed and moved forward carefully, examining the panel with an expression of annoyance. Finally, with a groan, he peeled off the metal plating of the panel and stared at the wires nestled behind it.

"Do _you _know how to get us through that?" Yugi asked, pointing towards the large metal door he stood in front of.

"Not really," Bakura muttered in reply, still glaring at the different colored wires half-buried in the wall. "Kaiba was going to show me a few tricks, but I'm afraid my knack for technology isn't as great as it should be."

"So how do we get through?"

"Well..." the tomb robber turned to give the Hikari behind him a quick glance. "I _do _have a way that'll be messy, but effective. Unfortunately, it'll give Yami and his guards warning of us again. Are you willing to try it?"

Yugi sighed, thinking carefully. "We _are _only ten floors from Yami. It should be easier to get to him, as we aren't so far away."

"Keep in mind that his traps only get stronger and more confusing, the closer you get to him."

"Still...we have to get to him quickly, or we'll loose our only advantage."

The ancient thief sighed and turned once more to face the exposed wires in front of him. "So we're going the messy way. Very well. Get ready to run again, Yugi." With that said, he reached forward, grasped a handful of wires, and with a growl tore them right out of the wall. 

The reaction was instant. The door swung open with an angry groan, and the two intruders darted through and up three more flights of steps. They burst out into the next hallway as quick as they could, not sure how much time they had before there were more guards down on them. 

But their worries of guards were quickly erased from their minds as they saw the obstacle that faced them in the forty-third hall. 

The level wasn't a simple, straight hall leading from one set of steps to the other, as most of the previous levels had been. It looked more like a maze of twisting, dark halls, with countless passages leading off into the labyrinth from where they stood. Yugi could sense magical traps, too, spaced all throughout the maze, most hidden in the dead ends that they could not see.

Bakura cursed loudly several times in Egyptian, the words flying so fast it was like one vulgar string escaping his mouth. When he finally tired of swearing, he hissed, "Damn that stupid Pharaoh. He's gone and put an Illusion in his defenses!"

"What?" the Hikari next to him asked, confused. 

"Yami used magic to create _this. _It's an Illusion." He said the word with an important tone, turning it into something much more dangerous sounding than it's more common pronunciation. "It's a trick of the Shadow Realm that can be used by other Millennium Item users, although it is very difficult magic to control. It's not exactly _real..._none of this is truly here...but at the same time, it's just as dangerous as if it really did exist. We may be in quite a bit more trouble than we bargained for."

"Ah," Yugi mumbled, sighing. _Another powerful trap, and all made out of dark magic. Yami really _has _been forced into Madness._

The Ring spirit beside him sighed as well, staring at the four halls leading away from them in confusion. "And the trouble starts here," he said, peering down each hall, though not seeing anything. "Only one of these is the true route, which we have to take. All the others are sure to have deadly magic waiting at the ends of them. If we go down one of the False Illusion halls, we may never come back--or if we do, it'll take too much time to get out, and we'll be caught." He frowned momentarily, then abruptly broke into a grin. "But Yami doesn't seem to realize that he's dealing with a tomb robber, and _me _of all thieves at that." 

Yugi was about to ask what the ancient spirit was talking about, but a glow from the Millennium Ring changed his mind completely as he realized what was happening. He smiled with hope as he saw the golden Ring raise slowly from it's position around Bakura's neck, jerking towards the second hall from the right and reaching with all it's pointers towards the shadowy corridor. 

The Ring spirit chuckled. "Why, Yami, I do believe I just found the way through your little maze," he said to himself, as he calmly walked towards the indicated hallway, allowing the Ring to drop back onto his chest. 

They darted through the corridor quickly and without hesitation, but if they had thought that Yami's Illusion would be simple enough to get through, they were wrong. After only a few minutes of running through the twisting passageway, the pair of them found themselves facing another group of three corridors, each leading off in it's own direction. Bakura growled in annoyance as he discovered the true hallway, this time on the far left. 

The endless darting through corridors and choosing of the correct hallways went on for ages, and Yugi found himself thinking more than once that they would never get out of the twisted labyrinth. The Ring spirit beside him, however, seemed pleased, and the young Hikari assumed hopefully that they _were _making their way out of the maze, though slowly. 

His thoughts proved themselves true, as the two comrades soon burst out of the last dark passageway and into the stairwells. As they pounded up the steps, the boy checked his watch--amazingly, they had only been in the maze for twenty minutes. It had seemed like hours of darting around corridors and stumbling through the dark. 

Panting, Bakura and Yugi reached the top of the stairs, running through the doorway into the halls of level forty-six...and stopping dead still at the sight of the twenty-four guards, dressed entirely in black, facing them, only ten feet away. 

The Ring spirit narrowed his eyes in anger, studying the men in front of them. He muttered something under his breath; Yugi thought he could make out the words, "No Special Guards." Somehow, the words sent a chill up his spine.

The thief was speaking louder now, his voice determined, but at the same time...regretful? His words echoed the tone of his voice, with a mix of anger and sorrow. "May the gods forgive me for what I am about to do," he said, loud and strong, as he reached for something in his back pocket--a Duel Monsters card. 

Yugi had about two seconds to take a quick look at the card before the ancient tomb robber began to move forward slowly, towards the guards. Nevertheless, a sudden, foreboding feeling fell over the boy, making his stomach churn as he recognized the card. 

A Morphing Jar. 

Bakura was moving quicker now, striding towards the guards as if he meant business. The men ahead of him were beginning to head towards him as well, thinking the spirit weak and unable to defend himself. They were laughing as they walked, mocking the 'fool Traitor.'

Their laughs quickly turned to screams, however, as the Ring spirit stopped and calmly raised the Duel Monsters card into the air. It glowed brightly, as did his Millennium Ring. Then the bright, shimmering light was swallowed up by suddenly appearing shadows--shadows that poured from a dark hole, hovering just behind the ancient thief. 

There was a hideous cackle from within the hole, before a long, thin shape began to emerge from it. It had large, crazed eyes that glared at the guards before it, but it's mouth was far more noticeable--huge, with large teeth and an insane grin plastered eternally over it. 

It raised it's thin bulk as high as it possibly could, scraping the ceiling with it's head, still laughing in a high-pitched tone. Abruptly, it's body began to stretch and bubble, becoming at least ten times it's usual size, filling the entire top portion of the hallway. With a horrendous shriek, it dived down on the black-clothed men before it, sweeping over them and hiding them completely with it's own, nightmare-black body. It didn't stop moving, but continued roaring down the hall, cackling insanely, it's long body still pouring out of the shadowy hole behind Bakura. Then, slowly, it began to fade away, disappearing into the air in smoky wisps, until all that was left was it's crazed laugh--and even the sound soon faded away into nothingness. 

There was no trace of the guards at all, either. 

The Ring spirit sighed, shook his head, and tucked the card gently back into his pocket. Slowly, he turned to Yugi, muttering, "Come on."

The young Hikari stood still, paralyzed by shock. He could not believe what he had just seen--twenty-four men, all alive and well, suddenly sent to the Graveyard. There was no doubt what would happen to them there...if they even lived an hour, they would be lucky. 

"Come _on,_" Bakura repeated, running back a few paces and grasping Yugi's wrist, tugging him along down the hall. He broke into a run, forcing the young Hikari to speed up, as well. The rest of the journey down the hall was completed in silence.

"I don't like it any more than you do," the tomb robber continued, once they had reached the stairwell and began climbing up it's four flights. "I feel horrible after I send people to the Graveyard like that. But it had to be done; there was no other way. I _have _to get you to Yami at all costs, remember what Kaiba said."

Yugi nodded sadly. "I know. And I understand."

They darted up the final flight of steps quietly, turning towards the doorway and stepping through--onto the fiftieth floor, the level that Yami resided on. 

They were faced with one endlessly long hall, stretching on down to a pair of golden double doors at the end. The carpet was soft and expensive-looking, and the color of blood. The dark-colored walls were absent of other doors where offices had most likely once been; instead they were covered with glass cases, holding sections of rocky walls, covered in hieroglyphics that looked as though they had Egyptian origin. The entire hallway looked as though it belonged to some museum, although the dark colors of the walls and the carpet's particular blood-red shade made it look crueler than it should have appeared. 

Bakura's face was set with determination, though his anger was easily seen in his eyes as well. He stared at the golden doors at the far end of the halls. "There," he said, surprisingly calm, "is where Yami lies."

Yugi nodded and began to walk forward, towards the double doors, his own determination showing in his steps. He would see what exactly had happened to his darker side...and he would see if he could stop it. _I won't give up. No matter what, I will never give up. _

The two of them walked in silence, striding towards the ominous double doors with countless emotions swirling through their minds. The hallway seemed to go on forever; Yugi guessed it had been built this way to intimidate intruders. He guessed that the glassed-in hieroglyphics were meant to serve the same purpose as he glanced at them, for the vast majority of them showed the ancient Pharaoh, standing above his defeated, dead enemies in victory, Millennium Puzzle glowing dangerously. 

At last, after what seemed like an age, the young Hikari and his Ring spirit comrade were standing outside the gigantic golden double doors. Yugi stared up at them in surprise; they would have looked almost beautiful, but for the foreboding sense they cast over the viewer. Carved into the doors was a large triangle, facing point down, with an Egyptian eye in the center--the entire carving formed the front of the Millennium Puzzle. 

Yugi sighed one last time and reached for the door, but Bakura stopped him quickly. 

"Hold on," the tomb robber hissed. "Before you go in, there is something I must say first." the young Hikari nodded and turned to face the Ring spirit, who continued. "Yugi, I have sworn to help you all I can, and to protect you while you are in this Realm. I don't plan to break an oath I made on the Ring. But now that Ryou is safe once more...I cannot take risks that may cost his safety. I will help you against Yami all I can, but if it comes to the point when it becomes too dangerous, I will have to step aside. You understand, don't you?" His question seemed nervous, with a worried tone ringing clearly through it. 

Yugi nodded, quickly speaking to put his friend at ease. "Of course I understand. Don't worry about it, Bakura."

The spirit nodded gratefully before his expression became serious once more. "I thank you. And I wish you good luck in there as well," he said, jerking his head towards the golden doors in front of them. "I don't know how this encounter will go, but I hope I'll have the chance to talk to you again, if Yami does not..." he let it hang, but the Hikari understood all too well. Seeing this, the spirit continued. "Be warned, however--Yami is powerful, dangerously powerful. He will do anything it takes to win, so watch your back at all times." 

Yugi nodded one last time before turning and pressing his hand against the cold metal of the doors. He sighed, closing his eyes briefly, gathering his courage together. Then, raising his head, he said calmly, "Let's go."

He pushed open the heavy golden door carefully, slipping into the room with ease. He felt Bakura sliding through the opening in the door as well, but his mind was wiped of the thought as he gazed around the room in surprise. 

The first thing he saw was a decently large TV, hanging from the ceiling by a few strong, metallic cables. The picture on the screen was in rather fuzzy color, and from the quality of it, the shots were evidently that of a security camera. But Yugi didn't care about _that _so much as what was being _viewed _by the camera. It was a shot of the gate circling the building, as well as a few of the smaller structures surrounding the skyscraper. There were men darting out of the smaller buildings, drawing guns and other dangerous-looking weapons. The Hikari soon spotted the reason--there were two figures running full-out towards the gate, obviously escaping. Upon taking a closer look, Yugi recognized the first figure as Joey, running frantically with a rather angry Seto Kaiba leaning on his shoulder. One of Kaiba's legs wasn't moving at all, and was bleeding rapidly--_the gunshots! He got hit in the leg!_--and so it seemed that Joey was doing most of the escaping work. Yugi watched with growing hope as his friends succeeded in reaching the gate, ripping it open and escaping the camera's line of sight. 

_They're alive! They got away!_ he thought, his heart practically bursting with relief. 

The next thing to meet his eyes, however, completely destroyed what little happiness he had gained from the camera's shots. 

As his eyes continued to roam around the room, he spotted one section of the wall directly across from him that was different from everything else. There were six Duel Monsters cards pinned to the wall by all four corners, each picture on the cards startlingly clear and recognizable. A Dark Magician on the far left, followed by a Flame Swordsman, Cyber Commander, Magician of Faith, Blue Eyes White Dragon, and finally on the far right a Change of Heart. Yugi choked as he recognized each card as the favorite of one of his close friends. He stared in horror at the way each card had been treated, as well. The Change of Heart was ripped in half down the line that separated it's dark half from it's light, probably representing Ryou and Bakura; the lighter half of the card had a sharp, silvery knife stabbed through it's snowy wing. The Dark Magician and Cyber Commander were much the same, with small, silver blades thrust through the centers of the cards. The Blue Eyes White Dragon had suffered as well; though it had no knife piercing it, it's edges were ragged and torn, and a large tear ripped halfway through the card.

_Oh, god, _Yugi thought to himself, feeling sick. _They_ _represent all of us, all of our souls...Tristen and I have died here, and Ryou was as good as dead--and their are knives through all of our cards. And the Blue Eyes...Kaiba's not dead, but his heart and soul have been tortured...so it's been ripped. God, this is wrong. Wrong. _

Tearing his eyes from the cruel display, Yugi forced himself to look around the rest of the room. For the most part, the furnishings were rich and almost beautiful, but their were sinister edges to the room, making it look cold and dangerous. The Hikari glanced around the room once before his eyes were drawn to one particular desk in the center of the room, just below the card display. 

The desk was smooth and polished, the sun shining through the windows glinting off of it in small pools and reflecting back onto the walls and ceiling. There was a small stack of papers sitting on the edge of the desk, along with a few writing utensils and other odds and ends. It wasn't the desk that drew Yugi's eyes, however, but the figure behind it. 

Yami. 

The ancient Pharaoh was resting calmly in a large, expensive-looking wooden chair. His arms were crossed over his chest, only a few inches above the pyramid-shaped item hanging from around his neck. His tri-colored hair was an almost exact replica of Yugi's, with the same long, golden bangs hanging down just on the sides of his eyes. But his eyes weren't the reflections of his Hikari's at all; they were narrowed, cold and cruel, the violet color looking so dark it was nearly black. 

The Puzzle spirit stood with easy grace as his eyes met Yugi's. He glanced over Bakura carelessly before returning to his once-Hikari, studying the boy with an angry frown. After several minutes of silence, in which nobody moved, the Pharaoh spoke. 

"So. Yugi. But not really, am I correct? The famous imposter that my Special Guard has been talking about for the past day." He laughed, a cruel, harsh sound that was shocking to hear. "Of course you couldn't _really _be Yugi. He has long since been dead."

The Hikari took a step forward, towards the dark spirit in front of him, and spoke, peering into the Pharaoh's dark, shadowed eyes. "I _am _Yugi. You know it well, I can see that. Don't deny it."

Yami laughed again, narrowing his eyes as he glared at what was once his Hikari. "Don't be a fool. I have seen death quite a bit in my long lifetime, I can tell when somebody I know has died. _Especially _what used to be my Light. I--" 

He stopped suddenly, his eyes focusing on the Millennium Puzzle around Yugi's neck. Confused, the spirit narrowed his eyes at the Item, probing it's magic carefully with his own Puzzle. Suddenly he froze, staring at the Pure Millennium Puzzle with utmost shock. 

"But...but this is impossible...no, it's not you....no, you're dead...I saw you die...watched you die..._let _you die..." the Pharaoh's voice took a whispering tone, a hiss that was chilling and terrifying. The dark spirit himself was shivering slightly, still staring at the Hikari across from him unblinkingly.

After several more minutes of nothingness, Yami finally drew himself up fully and said calmly, "Death does not reverse itself, not without the help of powerful magic. Not even with the strength of all the Millennium Items is it completed. Yet you are not an imposter, for you hold the Puzzle, as clearly as I hold it as well. So. Who are you?"

"Just as I have said, Yami," the Hikari said calmly, "I am Yugi Moto, your partner. Your Aibou. And no matter if you have killed me or not, that one fact will never change."

The Pharaoh glared at him in anger, dark violet eyes burning in pure hate. "Very well," he hissed, turning and striding towards the gruesome card display behind him. He reached for the Dark Magician's card, jerking the knife out the figure's drawn midsection and tossing the blade carelessly onto the polished desk. "I will savor replacing that when my work here is done once more."

Yugi shivered at the threat, finding it hard to grasp that his darker half was acting so evil. Trying to take a calmer approach, he said slowly, "I won't fight you, Yami. I refuse to. You should as well."

The ancient ruler chuckled harshly. "You refuse to fight because you can't. The dark magic was too strong for you, wasn't it? I survived it. I was the _only _one strong enough to survive it. You were weak, and foolish. And you still are. You will fall again, and for the same reason." He paced calmly around the desk, coming within only a few feet of his lighter half. 

Yugi could sense that he was in danger, but he wouldn't give up. "You would attack your Aibou? Yami, we're partners! Friends! Don't you _remember?_"

"I trust no one but myself!" Yami spat, taking a step forward in his anger. "There are no such things as partners, you fool, only those that will betray you unless you turn on them first. There can be no friends, only enemies!"

With this final explosion of words, the ancient Pharaoh leaped forward, arms outstretched to grasp at the Hikari across from him, the Puzzle glowing with a sickly, dark light. With a frightened yell, Yugi took a step backwards and fell onto his back, staring upward in shock as his Yami came closer, death glowing in his Puzzle and reflecting in his dark, crazed eyes. 

Yugi closed his eyes, as if preparing for the pain that he knew was coming--but nothing happened. Instead, he heard a muffled shout, the words slurred together and unrecognizable, and then a softer sound, the flurry of wings as they flapped over him in a whirlwind. 

Snapping his eyes open, he gazed in wondered surprise as he saw a figure swooping towards his Yami on miss-matched wings. It was a girl with long, shining brown hair, wearing flowing robes, a heart easily seen over her chest. There was almost a line running down from her forehead to the ends of her robes, splitting her appearance neatly in two. One half was light colored, with white robes and one snowy angel wing, while the other half was darker, with it's powerful, jet-black demon wing pumping through the air. She flew towards the Pharaoh defiantly, wings pushing her to greater speeds; suddenly and without warning, she rammed into the spirit in the shoulder, a painful tackle that stopped him in his tracks. 

With an angry roar, Yami's darkened Puzzle glowed, it's energy enveloping the Change of Heart and shattering it into millions of pieces with one last scream from the monster. Drawing himself into a taller stance, the Pharaoh stared over Yugi's shoulder and said coldly, "A pathetic effort."

Startled, Yugi stood up slowly and turned to look over his shoulder. Bakura stood behind him, still holding a Duel Monsters card high in the air and glaring at Yami with burning anger. 

"And yet," the ancient ruler continued with mocking calm, "I thought you swore never to use Ryou's favorite card without the boy being present. I knew you could never keep an oath. Thieves are never to be trusted."

"I always keep my oath, even now," Bakura spat, tucking the Change of Heart back into his pocket. "And I had Ryou's consent. In fact, he told me to use it."

Yami paled. "He's...back? But my magic...it can only be un-done by me!"

"Not quite, _Pharaoh!_" the tomb robber shot back mockingly. 

The Puzzle spirit was becoming lost in shock, staring from Yugi, to the Puzzle around his neck, and back again, murmuring. "Perhaps it is simply the Item that controls the fate of the victims..." 

The tomb robber took advantage of the other dark spirit's confusion, diving forward and summoning all the energy his Millennium Ring possessed. With an angry roar, he gathered the magic and fired it, the pointers raising upwards to aim it in a shining blue aura. 

Yami whipped towards the Ring spirit in surprise that quickly changed into anger. Growling, he countered the magical blast with one of his own, allowing a light green stream of energy to surge from the eye symbol on the front of his Puzzle. The two magical attacks met in mid-air, colliding with a burst of sparks and beginning to push at each other, as if trying to shove one's attack back at another. 

Bakura soon seemed to be winning, as his own blue energy was forcing the green back on itself, towards it's creator. He concentrated and shoved harder mentally, urging his magic onward, despite the sweat that was now pouring into his eyes from the strain. Yami was sweating hard, as well, but for some reason he was _smiling. _Yugi felt another chill travel down his spine as he watched, helpless to do anything. 

Without warning, Yami gave a shout, drawing on more power from a dark source. The light-green color of his magic suddenly wavered, and from the Puzzle a black aura swirled up and around his battling energy, darkening it to a nightmarish tint. The new, shadowy magic suddenly forced itself forward, cleaving the blue aura it fought against cleanly in two and slamming into Bakura's chest. The tomb robber cried out in pain, jerking back against one of the golden doors behind him and sinking down it to the floor. 

"I win," Yami said calmly, a sickening grin on his face. 

"Bakura!" Yugi yelled in dismay, using a small amount of his own Puzzle's power to check over the thief's condition. He was worried about the dark powers in Yami's Puzzle spreading to the Millennium Ring more than anything else, but thankfully the ancient tomb robber's Ring stayed full of pure magic only. 

He heard the Pharaoh behind him start in surprise, and he whirled around quickly to see what had happened. He found himself staring at a rapidly growing hole in the air, with small shadows pouring out of it like smoke and rolling along the ground quietly. 

_A portal...a Realm gate, leading back to my world! _Yugi thought with surprise. _But...how? _

Bakura's words back in the Opposition base suddenly found their way into the Hikari's thoughts. _Just as long as the magic within the both of you is close enough to combine, the Puzzle can open the gate one last time. _He realized with a start that both he and his Yami had used the Puzzle's magic, and it had succeeded in opening the Negative Realm's gate. 

He wanted desperately to run to the gate, to throw himself through it, to return to his Realm, _his _kind Yami, everything that he knew. But he realized that he couldn't, as he gazed around the room, glanced over the uncontious Bakura a few feet away. He had promised that he would help those in this Realm, and if he went through the portal now, they would think him nothing but a treacherous liar. No, he had _promised _his help, and he would give it. Even if the portal disappeared and left him there, he would still try his hardest to make all his friends' sacrifices worth something. 

Yugi turned to his darker half, staring at the spirit coldly. He found himself getting angry, as he stepped forward slowly. "You really _have _gone mad. Yami, I know something's wrong with you. I don't know if this is really you, or something controlling you. But whatever it may be, I'm going to help you overcome it."

Yami laughed cruelly. "_Help _me? What kind of a fool are you? I need no help, and especially not from a weak, kind-hearted idiot like you."

Yugi shook his head, his anger being overcome with sorrow. "I know that's not true. You're suffering, Yami. We both know it."

"I have become powerful! How can you accuse me of _suffering?!_"

"Because I know it's true." The Hikari was pacing forward slowly, coming within only a few inches of his darker side. 

His Yami stared down at him, a dark smile on his face. "You're braver than you were before, I'll give you that much. But you still deserve to die!"

His lighter side said sadly, "No, Yami. I don't deserve that. I'm going to help you. Right now."

The Pharaoh growled and made as if he was going to lunge forward to finish his young Light, but before he could do so, Yugi reached out and grasped the darkened Millennium Puzzle in both hands. 

As soon as he touched the smooth, golden surface, the entire world seemed to diminish and become unimportant. The only things he was aware of were himself, his Yami, and the dark and pure Millennium Puzzles. His vision also seemed to be enhanced, for when he looked up at his other half, he could see dark, twisting shadows wrapping around the Pharaoh, around his head, his heart, his very _soul. _They were burrowed into the very materials building the spirit's life, like parasites, feeding off of the ancient being's soul and mind. And the shadows, while wrapped around him and consuming the Pharaoh's very sense of existence, were also exchanging it with something much like poison, infecting his mind, damaging his mentality, turning him cold and harsh...turning him evil. 

Yugi could literally _see _that the ancient ruler could no longer think straight; that what had used to be Yami had been long since buried under an avalanche of darkness. He simply was a tool for the shadows, now, his soul slowly being consumed and replaced with a deadly evil. 

The shadows seemed alive, as well, and they stirred considerably upon sensing a second Millennium Puzzle. They tightened their grip around the Pharaoh's mind before beginning to spread out...Yugi realized with terrified shock that they were trying to seize control of _his _Millennium Puzzle as well.

In a wave of fright, the Hikari summoned a mass of his Pure magical energies and forced the shadows back, making a wall that they could not pass. The darkness advancing on him abruptly wheeled back, withdrawing from the Pure magic as though it was deadly. 

_But...but to the shadows, it _is _deadly! _Yugi thought suddenly, as the darkness returned to it's haven, wrapped around Yami and his Millennium Puzzle. _Which means...maybe...maybe I could force the shadows away from Yami!_

Trying to test his theory, Yugi carefully summoned more of his Pure magic, forcing it forward and into the ancient spirit the shadows sheltered in. The dark matter wrapped around the Pharaoh squirmed slightly, budging just a tiny bit before settling back into place. 

_More...I need to use more energy..._the Hikari pulled at the magic curled into his Millennium Puzzle, drawing on more and more to try and force the darkness out of his friend. 

This time, on sending the Pure magic towards the shadows, the darkness shuddered and backed away a bit more than before, not returning to it's original spot. Vaguely, Yugi thought he could hear his Yami groan in pain, but he ignored it. Drawing on even more intense, Pure power, he shoved it towards the dark matter enveloping the ancient Pharaoh. 

With a shrieking noise, the shadows pulled back a bit more, loosening their hold slightly. This time, however, there was a definite scream of pain from the ancient ruler. Suddenly understanding, Yugi summarized what was happening to his friend in his thoughts. 

_He's had these shadows burrowing into his very soul too long...it's hurting him to remove it. But I have to, or it'll really kill him...I'll drive this darkness out of him, no matter how much it hurts him...or me._

With his decision firmly planted into his mind, he drew on the height of his Puzzle's magic, unaware that he was now glowing with a golden aura as he worked. With a yell, he forced the magic deep within the shadows, satisfied at hearing them shriek and try to back away. Some withered and faded away into nothingness upon being touched by the Pure magic flooding towards them. And yet, despite it all, the darkness was stubbornly refusing to give up it's hold over Yami. 

And as for Yami, the spirit was undergoing intense pain. Screams ripped their way out of his throat, tearing at Yugi's ears. The Pharaoh was jerking uncontrollably, unable to even hold himself up--he was leaning backwards slightly, the chain holding his Millennium Puzzle the only thing keeping him standing, straining as Yugi held the Item. 

Yugi realized with a start that there were tears running down his face as he forced the Pure magic upon the shadows holding his friend. The screams were breaking his mind and heart to pieces, and he didn't want to hear his friend--even one that had tried to attack him--in such pain. 

Then, suddenly, the shadows retreated, releasing their hold on the ancient Pharaoh completely and disappearing into the Shadow Realm. Yugi had enough time to notice that the Millennium Puzzle was suddenly flooded with Pure magic, identical to his own, before he released the Item and was brought back into awareness, once again noticing his surroundings. 

Yami still stood in front of him, but not for long; his knees buckled abruptly and he fell to the floor, gasping. Yugi stood quietly, watching the Pharaoh in exhaustion. Using so much power had tired him out completely. Nevertheless, he gazed down at his darker half with worry, asking quietly, "Yami?"

There was a long, shaky intake of breath from the ancient Pharaoh, on his hands and knees, before he spoke. "I...I'm sorry...." his voice sounded weak, as if he hadn't used it in ages. He raised his head to stare at Yugi, and the Hikari could see tears slipping down from the corners of his eyes. "I...knew what I was doing...I knew that it was wrong, it was causing pain...but it was all I knew how to do...it was my mind, my heart, my _soul!_" the spirit snapped his mouth shut as new tears coursed down his face. After several minutes, he finally spoke again. "I'm....so...so sorry..." he said slowly, shuddering. "I'm sorry for what I did to...to you....and to your friends..."

"It's okay," Yugi said helplessly, wanting to comfort a friend in trouble. "You and I both know it wasn't your fault."

"But it was..." the darker spirit said slowly, a catch in his voice. "It was..."

Yugi sighed and looked around the room. There hadn't been as much damage as he thought there would have been, although the papers that had earlier been on the desk had scattered all over the room. He glanced over his shoulder at Bakura, still slumped against the golden doors, uncontious, and sighed again. He started to walk towards the tomb robber, but something caught his eye. 

The Realm portal was flickering warningly, and it looked far smaller than it had been earlier. The dark shadows that had been rolling around lazily below the opening were now slowly withdrawing into the hole, and Yugi could tell that it was closing. 

"No!" he yelled helplessly, his mind divided. He wanted to help his friends, but if he didn't get through the portal _now, _he would be trapped in the Negative Realm for good. 

"Go on," Yami said slowly, standing and facing him with sorrow-filled eyes. They had returned to their natural, light-violet color, and were once again friendly, much to Yugi's satisfaction. The Pharaoh continued speaking, though his tone was sad. "I don't know why you need to pass through that...thing...but I can tell that you need to get moving right now. I'll make sure he leaves in one piece, don't worry," he said, indicating Bakura. "And I'm sick of this need to conquer...I'm done with it."

Yugi nodded gratefully, hurrying towards the portal. Before stepping through, however, he said calmly, "Good-bye, Yami. I am glad I was able to help you."

The Pharaoh said nothing, and so Yugi turned and stepped into the hole in the air quietly. The darkness of the portal covered him, enveloping him entirely as it took him to his destination. 

The Hikari felt suddenly tired, and without realizing it he quietly closed his eyes and fell into a relaxed sleep. Just before he did so, however, he thought he heard the deep voice that called him in his Shadowdreams speak.

"Very good, Yugi Moto. You were not tempted. You are worthy of the great things to come. I praise you."

*****

HCG: Wow, that took a _long _time to write. *sighs, then relaxes as Kaiba, Slash, and Karma finish singing another song, this time _One Last Breath _by Creed*

Kaiba: *as soon as he can talk again* I'M ALIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!! HAHAHAHAHA!

HCG: o_O;; Um...yeah...

Kaiba: ^_____^ 

HCG: Ooo-kay, this is getting weird now.

Kaiba: HAH, they can shoot at me all they want and they'll NEVER defeat Seto Kaiba!

HCG: ¬_¬;; Okay, now it's getting annoying. Kaiba, play another song or shut up!

Kaiba: *grins, then starts to sing "I'm Back" from the Yu-Gi-Oh! soundtrack*

Karma: You should've known that one was coming.

HCG: It doesn't matter. He's got a nice voice; it sounds great. In fact...Kaiba, you're no longer a temporary muse, or a guest--you're a permanent Muse ^_~

Kaiba: *halting halfway through the song* Wha?!

HCG: You heard me ^_^

Kaiba: O_O;; *passes out*

HCG: Aww, look, he's so happy to hear the news that he fainted!

Slash: I don't think that's _quite _the reason.

HCG: o_O;; Are you sure?

Slash: Positive.

HCG: *sighs* Well, okay...but he's still my new Muse. Now, let's see, story...okay, people, don't go away just yet, I still have one more chapter to write--the epilogue. So hang in there, and I'll get the last chapter out to you great readers soon. Thanks to all the reviewers out there, again ^_^ You guys are great.

Karma: And Happy Holidays...um, I said that a bit late, didn't I?

Slash: Just a little.

HCG: Okay, people, review for this chapter, PLEEEEAAAASE! PLEASE, I need'em!

Karma: ¬_¬;; Yeah, or you'll end up torturing us again...so really, please review!


	9. Realms' Return

HCG: Hey everybody ^_^ How exciting...the very last chapter in my story! 

Karma: And it was a good story, too. 

Slash: *muttering* Suck up.

Kaiba: *still passed out*

HCG: o_O;; So...only one of my muses is really...working. Good Karma! *rewards him with some great fudge she got for Christmas*

Karma: ^_^ Nummy...

HCG: Anyway...I've also got two guests here for the final chapter, Yugi and Yami!

Yugi: ^_^ Hiya!

Yami: *twitch* *groan*

HCG: o_O;; Yami? What's wrong?

Yami: That last *twitch* chapter was *twitch* very *twitch* painful... *double twitch*

Yugi: ^_^;; Oopsie?

Yami: *twitch* *faint*

HCG: *blink* Um...okay...

Karma: Why don't you give'em the special note, Guardian?

HCG: Right. Listen up, people, 'cause this is important. My updating of chapters is probably going to get a little irregular, now, as well as my reading/reviewing for others' chapters. There _is _a reason for this, which is also in my bio, but I'll explain it anyway. I got my own computer, so I don't have to use my parent's computer anymore. I also have online privileges, but unfortunately there is a Parental Restriction thingie set up on it, and it blocks FF.net. Therefore, I have to do all my updating at school, and since there isn't much free time, I won't have a regular "updating schedule." I won't be able to read as many other fics, either, but I'll be checking my review history pretty often to see who's updated and who hasn't. (Thank god they put that history in, huh?) I'll try to review people's fics as much as possible, but don't expect me to move very quickly, alright?

Karma: It's clear.

HCG: Good. 

Slash: Now we answer the reviews, right?

HCG: Right. Here we go:

****

Sparky 16 ~ Sorry, but because of the above note I wasn't able to email you this next chapter. I apologize for the inconvenience this may have cause you *shrugs*

****

Delphine Pryde ~ Stupid virus...hope you feel better by now ^_~

****

Towairaito Zoon ~ Other-M, I've heard of it before. In fact, I've written Sonic Fanfiction as well, although it's too long to post at FF.net (it's not broken into chapters; it's just one, long, 72 page story). Actually, Karma and Slash are characters I made up to fit into the Sonic verse; Karma's a lizard Guardian and Slash is an anteater thief/assassin.

Slash: KILL...SONIC...*insane grin*

HCG: o_O;; Um...right.

****

YumeTakato ~ When I said you were close to what I was going to do, I meant the dream sequence in chapter 7. You said that Yugi should meet Yugi in the dream--I had planned on his meeting _Yami, _which was pretty close. 

Finally, to ALL reviewers (and particularly Aibou *laughs*) I thank you for your reviews. After the chapter is over, there's a special surprise for all of you ^_~

Slash: Who's gonna stop'em from skipping the chapter and going straight for the gift?

HCG: They _like _my fic, that's why. They've _gotta _read the epilogue first, just so all their questions are answered. 

Slash: *grumbles*

HGC: Quit whining. Do the disclaimer.

Slash: *sigh* Guardian does not own Yu-Gi-Oh or it's characters--

Yami: *briefly waking up* Thank *twitch* Ra! *passes out again*

Slash: --but she does own me and Karma. And the fudge, too.

HCG: Thanks, Slash. *gives him a piece of fudge* Now, notes!

/word/ ~ A Hikari to a Yami

//word// ~ A Yami to a Hikari

__

italics are thoughts or dreams/memories.

Hmm...first part's sorta from Yami's point of view, a bit different than usual...I've just done Yugi before now...but they ARE Hikari/Yami, so bleh! *sticks out tongue*

And, people, it's now the TRUE REALM! TRUEREALMTRUEREALMTRUEREALM! Don't get confused, or I'll have to get mad. *sighs* Geeze!

Shadow Turned Light

Epilogue: Realms Return

Deep in the mental trap that had captured Yugi and his Yami, the ancient Pharaoh had become frantic. He had seen his Light drop from the lip of the high, shadowy hole and into the silver, flowing portal, disappearing completely; at the same time, his mind link with the boy had abruptly cut off, and he could no longer sense the young teen. This worried him to no end; how could he possibly tell if his Hikari was safe or not if he couldn't even sense him? 

Even worse was his discovery when the mental landscape melted away and left him in the real, physical world once more. He was horrified to discover that Yugi was not only missing in mind, but in body as well--for the young boy was nowhere to be seen. 

Yami immediately tried the mind link again, only to find something much like an invisible wall between his mind and his hikari's. With a sigh of despair, he stopped attempting to contact his charge, instead glancing around the alley he was in, trying to find the smallest details that would signify his aibou was okay. Perhaps he was just playing a joke, like teenagers would from time to time...

His thoughts were temporarily interrupted as a wave of exhaustion swept over him, making him sway slightly. Blinking in surprise, he glanced down absent-mindedly at himself, and discovered he was in his transparent, spirit-like form--not quite _existing, _but at the same time still easily visible to the common eye, with the exception of a slightly see-through frame. 

_But...but I can't exist in any kind of form unless Yugi is near..._the Pharaoh thought to himself in astonishment. He came to the relieved conclusion that Yugi _must _still be alive, even if Yami couldn't contact him, or the spirit wouldn't so visible. Nevertheless, it was sapping most of his energy to keep the false form in existence. 

The ancient Pharaoh sighed and leaned back slightly on his heels, closing his eyes and tilting his head back a bit in a rather tired and worried position. He was on the verge of leaning back against the alley wall when his eyes suddenly snapped back open, registering the startling detail he hadn't noticed before in his anxiety.

The silvery portal was gone. 

With a cry of angered startlement, Yami dashed forward to where the portal had been, swiping hopelessly at the air that had held it, as if attempting to re-open the atmosphere. After several seconds without any result, the dark spirit groaned in anger and stumbled backwards, reaching the alley wall and sliding down it's surface into a sitting position. 

He knew now what had happened to his Aibou...the boy had been pulled through the portal, there was no doubt about it. He wished desperately that he knew where the portal had lead...

He reassured his troubled thoughts slightly with one strong conclusion: the portal had not lead to the Shadow Realm. He was comforted slightly as he realized that his hikari was not suffering in the dark Realm, unprotected by the draining effects it brought upon it's visitors. He gave a small shudder as an old memory came to him for a few seconds; a memory of a duel, his hikari's duel against Pegasus, when Yugi had nearly been lost to the Shadow Realm...

_By the gods, Yugi, I hope you aren't suffering like that, whatever's happened to you..._

Drawing himself up slowly, though leaning on the alley wall with obvious fatigue, the ancient spirit came to another conclusion: he needed to get help, and quick. He wasn't sure how long he could sustain his faded, translucent form, and he didn't know what would happen to him once it lost it's energy and disappeared; however, he had to get _somebody _to continue the search for his aibou. 

But who could he get to help? Surely he couldn't call on any normal means of assistance; what common person would believe his story of a person being drawn into thin air? In any case, he couldn't risk being seen in his transparent form, or somebody was sure to cause trouble later.

With a sudden flash of inspiration, Yami realized who he could get help from. _Yugi's friends. _They knew about him, of course, and they would probably be willing to listen to his strange stories, after all the other odd occurrences that they had found themselves in. 

Taking one last glance around the alley, almost as if he expected the portal to suddenly return, the Pharaoh stepped out of the darkened space and headed carefully down the street, being careful not to be seen. With a quick check to see what the street's name was, he journeyed out onto the larger roads, heading towards the school. 

He wasn't really sure where any of Yugi's friends were at the moment--he had woken up and contacted Yugi after the boy had left the school without any of his classmates. However, the spirit was becoming accustomed to his hikari's schedule; whenever Joey or Tristen didn't join him after school, it was an easy guess to say that they were probably at some sport's practice. He had no idea where Tea might have been, or Ryou. On reflection, he decided finding Ryou probably wasn't the best of ideas, as Bakura would most likely try to take advantage of the Pharaoh's weakened state to attack him. 

After several minutes of walking, in which Yami tried his hardest not to be seen, he finally reached the small field next to Domino High's main building. 

The Pharaoh observed the large group of students out in the center of the field, carefully staying out of their line of sight. He scanned the group carefully, and after a few seconds was rewarded as he spotted one of the taller students, his unruly mop of blonde hair and bangs shaking back and forth slightly as he ran. The boy was laughing as he chased after a black and white patched ball, kicking it into a large net despite the attempted block by a fellow student. Grinning wildly, the boy--obviously Joey--threw his hands into the air and yelled loudly, "GOAL!"

"Very nice, Wheeler!" an older, smiling man, the coach, yelled, giving the blonde a thumbs up signal. "Take a quick break, you've been working hard out there!"

"Thanks, coach!" Joey replied, grinning fiercely as he moved off towards one of the benches. Seeing his chance, Yami dashed forward quickly, reaching the bench before his friend. 

Joey had noticed Yami running forward, and quickened his own pace. "Hey, Yugi!" he began, but stopped in mid-greeting. He frowned slightly and squinted, looking at the spirit in front of him and his slightly translucent appearance, before speaking again. "Yami? What're you doing here? And where's Yuge?"

"That's what I'd like to know!" the Pharaoh hissed, his voice more steely than he meant it to be from his worry. "I need your help, come on..."

Joey blinked in surprise, staring slightly downward at the spirit in front of him. Yami looked extremely worried, and the teen could instantly tell that something very, very bad had happened. When Yami was worried about something, it usually meant that any _normal _person would want to start running in the other direction and screaming frantically because of that same thing.

"Right," the boy said slowly, turning behind him to trot back towards the coach. "Lemme just tell Coach I'm leaving, okay?"

The Pharaoh nodded in reply, though impatiently. Joey hurried quickly to the teacher, quickly thinking up an excuse for his reason for leaving as he did so. 

"'Ey, Coach, you don't mind if I take off early, do you?" he asked quickly, forcing himself to stand calmly and not to fidget. 

The teacher raised an eyebrow. "And why would you want to do that, Mr. Wheeler?"

"Well, see, er, it's...Serenity," he offered. "She, er, she's coming down for a visit for a few days, and I forgot all about it. I was hoping I could leave early and go meet her...I don't get to see'er much, ya know."

The coach smiled. "Oh really, Mr. Wheeler? Yes, I know. Alright, I'll allow you to leave early, but you'd better make up for it next practice."

"Yessir!" the blonde teen rapped, whirling around on his heel to dash off towards the waiting dark spirit. 

As he reached Yami, the ancient being turned as well, breaking into a jog as he headed back towards the roads. He asked one question quickly. "Where's Tristen?"

"He'd never get out of practice if the sky fell down on our heads," Joey muttered. "His coach is pretty tough. Might as well just leave."

"Very well. Come, we must hurry." The dark spirit lead his friend down a twisting maze of roads, heading slowly back towards the alley where he had discovered his hikari missing. After several minutes, during which their travel was completely quiet, they reached the dark, depressing-looking opening between two buildings. 

"Here," Yami muttered slowly, glancing around the alley once more. "Here is where it happened."

"Where _what _happened?" Joey asked quizzically, confused. 

The ancient Pharaoh sighed and retold the account that had happened hardly more than a half hour ago. Joey stared in shock as the spirit finished. 

"He got pulled through a portal?" the teen said disbelievingly. 

"Yes, he did." Noticing the teen's doubtful look, Yami said seriously, "Do you think I would lie about my Aibou?"

"Well...no...it's just that it doesn't really make _sense,_" Joey said sheepishly. There was a moment's pause before he muttered under his breath, "then again, I'm talking to a person who's over five thousand years old. So I'm not really one to talk, huh?"

The Puzzle-spirit sighed again, this time in fatigue. "I'm not sure how much longer I can keep up this false form. You have to stay here, in case...in case _something _happens," he finished helplessly. 

Joey nodded. "Right. I know what you mean. What should we do in the meantime?"

"Look for clues. Maybe there's something here that'll tell us what happened to Yugi."

Separating, the two spread out among the rubbish in the alley, checking every inch of the space for the smallest details that could possibly reveal a clue. Joey was doing more of the searching than the ancient Pharaoh, as the spirit was often forced to stop and rest, recovering what little strength he could to keep up his illusion form. No matter how hard he tried, however, he could not build up enough energy to hold the form for lasting periods of time--it was like trying to hold water in his cupped hands, constantly dwindling down into nothing. 

They stayed within the alley for several hours, searching for the clues that they knew didn't exist, but that they wanted so badly to appear. Yami finally dropped out of the search entirely, sitting against the one of the alley's walls with an exhausted look, and finally falling into a light doze. Joey let him rest, knowing that he desperately needed it to keep his strength up. 

The boy had taken to pacing in rough circles, eyes darting around the alleyway as though he had missed some clue, when in reality he had run over every inch of the place at least three times. He sighed and ran a hand through his messy bangs, closing his eyes against a small headache that was forming. 

He almost missed the odd occurrence that came next. The air a few feet away seemed to almost...well, _flicker._ Joey blinked in annoyance; this stupid headache was probably messing his mind up. He stared hard at the air, as though to prove to himself that there was nothing wrong with it, that it really _was _just his head. 

It flickered again.

Wide-eyed and staring, Joey backed up a step and turned to glance at the dark spirit sleeping gently behind him. 

"Er...Yami? Maybe you'd better wake up..."

Slowly, the ancient Pharaoh groaned and stirred, opening his heavy eyelids and barely lifting his head. "What is it, Joey?"

"You might want to take a look at this, dude."

Sighing, the spirit raised his head higher and glanced at the area Joey was indicating with his finger. Almost instantly he was dragging himself to his feet, staring in awed surprise at the thin line now slicing it's way through the air. 

"I...don't...believe it!" the dark being said, shocked, taking a step forward towards the line. It was now slowly spreading apart, opening up into a shimmering, oval-shaped, silver portal. A few rouge shadows poured out the bottom of the opening in the air, circling in a small area below it. 

"Is that what caught Yugi?" Joey asked, eyeing the portal with obvious dislike. 

"Yes...it is!" Yami's voice was becoming more determined as he took a few more quick steps forward. "If he's in there, I'm going through after him!"

"Woah, man, wait up!" Joey yelped in surprise, but the Pharaoh was already standing in front of the portal, staring up at it as if it was a new enemy that had to be defeated. 

Just as he was about to move forward and touch it's shimmering, not-quite-solid surface, however, the silver coloring within the center grew darker and formed a vague outline of...a _person._

The darker color began to part slightly, and it was evident that something behind it's surface was pushing it's way out of the portal. Yami and Joey wore twin expressions of shock at the sight, as if they didn't expect it to happen--which, obviously, they hadn't. 

Quite suddenly, with perfect silence, the silver coloring withdrew completely, and the person within stepped out and fell forward almost instantly. Yami instinctively reached out and caught him gently. Meanwhile, the portal, now done with it's task, withdrew it's shadowy fog, curling back up on itself in the air and disappearing completely. 

Yami blinked slowly, suddenly filled with a new source of strength, and gazed down at the person now resting in his arms. His eyes betrayed his shock as he discovered his hikari slumped limply in his strong grip, obviously fatigued. 

"Yugi?!" Joey yelped behind him; Yami found his thoughts echoing his friend's exclamation of surprise. 

The young Hikari stirred slightly in his darker half's arms, weakly opening his eyes and gazing up at the Pharaoh and his best friend. Slowly, voice raspy as though tired, he spoke. "Am...I back...in my Realm?"

"What do you mean, Yugi?" the ancient spirit asked worriedly, shifting his hold on his small charge so as to make his hikari more comfortable. "Are you all right?"

The young Puzzle owner smiled weakly. "Yeah...I'm fine...and I'm back...nice to see...the real you...again...Yami." With this said, Yugi closed his eyes and fell limp again, head lolling slightly into Yami's chest. 

Quickly opening the mind-link the two shared, Yami was able to run through his Light's thoughts and reassure himself that his charge was indeed fine. 

"He's just fatigued," the spirit said out loud, more for Joey's benefit than anything else, as the poor boy was looking greatly worried. 

Joey blinked slowly, the anxiety plainly showing on his face fading just a bit. "Wonder what got him so tired..."

Yami shook his head. "I have no idea, but at this point it doesn't matter much. I need to take him home so he can rest; I don't have time to sit here and ask questions."

The blonde beside him nodded, excusing the slightly rude tone embedded in the Pharaoh's voice. He had a reason; he was obviously worried sick about his hikari. Joey did notice, however, that the spirit looked much stronger now that Yugi was back, and silently thanked fate for that. 

Yami gently laid his hikari down on the ground of the alley, then closed his eyes and concentrated. Joey felt a chill run up his spine as the spirit completely faded away into nothingness. The Eye of Horus on the front of the Puzzle glowed brightly; the next second, Yugi was sitting up calmly as if he had never stepped out of a portal hovering in mid-air. 

"Er...still Yami, right?" Joey asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Correct," the spirit, now in possession of his host's body, said calmly. "I'm just controlling Yugi, but letting his mind rest."

"Ah," the blonde teen muttered, shaking his head at how strange his life had become. 

Yami began to walk slowly towards the alley's exit, obviously being troubled slightly by the fatigue in Yugi's body. As he reached the street, he turned his head over his shoulder and spoke. 

"I thank you for your help, Joey, and for taking time out of your schedule to help me."

"Aw, it was nothin'," the teen said calmly. "I would've done the same for any of my friends."

"Yet I will still thank you." The Pharaoh smiled slightly before speaking again. "Don't be surprised if Yugi doesn't show up at school tomorrow. His exhaustion his very great; it surprises even me."

"Don't worry," Joey replied. "I'll explain it to the others. Get Yuge home now, and _both _of you rest. You both need it."

Yami laughed quietly before stepping out of the alley and onto the streets, heading back towards the Game Shop. 

After nearly fifteen minutes, he reached the Shop that made his aibou's home, stepping quietly into the building with a jingle from the door's bell. He slunk up the stairs onto the second floor, pacing down the hall to Yugi's bedroom. Opening the door, he quietly stepped into the room and walked across the floor to the bed. 

He sighed in relief and laid down on it, before separating from his young Hikari. The spirit suddenly found himself standing next to the bed, gazing down at his weary charge with the fondness every guardian has. The ghost of a smile on his lips, the ancient being bent down and covered his Light with the blankets, protecting him from the chill in the room. His task complete, he retreated to his soul room to rest for himself for the night, pausing only to check on his hikari in his soul room. No Shadowdreams, thankfully; he seemed calm, but tired. 

Still smiling, the ancient being entered his own soul room again, settling down into a peaceful sleep. The calm, happy expression stayed on his face as he drifted off into his dreams, knowing with absolute certainty that his Hikari was safe once more.

*****

The next morning Yugi woke with the sun shining painfully bright on his eyes. He groaned and rolled over slightly, squinting his eyes shut against the sunlight--and suddenly noticed that he was in a bed. 

Snapping his eyes open, he stared at the red, glowing numbers of a digital clock only a few inches away. The time read 7:50 AM; Yugi realized with a shock that classes were going to start in ten minutes, and that he had to get to school. His sudden surprise wiped the memories of his past day completely from his mind as he sat up suddenly, tearing the twisted sheets off of him so that he could get out of bed. 

The Millennium Puzzle, still around his neck, glowed brightly, the Eye of Horus shining bone-white. A second later, Yami appeared in the room in a complete temporary form, as real looking as the next person. 

"Where do you think you're going, Aibou?" Yami asked, raising an eyebrow at Yugi's jumpy response to his appearance. 

"Oh...Yami..." the boy sighed in recognition. "I'm going to school..."

"No, Yugi, you are not." The ancient Pharaoh stepped forward and gently pushed his charge back onto the bed by his shoulders. "Stay here and rest. You've obviously been through a lot, though I can't say exactly what, and you're very tired. Just relax; you're staying home today."

"But...but I have to go to school," Yugi protested weakly, as his darker half drew the covers over him. 

"One day of missing school won't hurt you, Aibou," the Pharaoh said practically, "but such exhaustion as you have very well might, if you don't take care of it. Just rest, Yugi."

The young Hikari sighed in annoyance. He really did have to go to school...and yet, he yawned loudly despite himself. He vaguely registered his darker half smile slightly, or how the spirit was soothingly stroking his hair, making him feel even more tired than before.

"All right...Yami..." the boy muttered drowsily. "You...win..." With that said, his head tilted the tiniest bit as his muscles relaxed, and he drifted off into a deep, peaceful sleep, not bothered once by Shadowdreams.

He was free of them now. He was worthy...

*****

"Don't wake him if he's asleep, Yami. We don't want to disturb his rest, after all."

"I thank you again for that, Joey."

"Stop thankin' me!"

Yugi stirred softly in his bed as the distant sound of voices from the floor below him reached his ears and filled his senses. He opened his eyes slowly, blinked, and sighed in relaxation. He had had a nice rest, thanks to Yami's concern, and he now felt refreshed and ready for anything. 

The voices downstairs halted abruptly and lurched into silence; several seconds later, Yami's voice could be heard. "He is awake. Come, follow me."

"Stop being so formal sounding, dude!" Tristen's voice floated up the steps, where Yugi could distinguish four pairs of feet coming towards him. 

"I can't help it. It's how I speak."

There was an exasperated sigh--Yugi guessed that it might belong to Joey, but he wasn't sure--and then silence once more. A few seconds later, there was a quick, rapid knock at the door.

"Come in," the young Hikari called cheerfully, sitting up on the bed as the door opened. 

Yami was in the front of the small group of four that entered through the door; he headed immediately to the chair near Yugi's bedside, where the boy could tell he'd been sitting for most of the day. Joey followed soon after, grinning as he usually did. Vaguely, the young Hikari thought he could remember seeing Joey somewhere recently...he shook his head as the memory failed to come to him, instead looking at the last two members of the group. Tristen smiled as he came into the room, followed by Tea, the last of his friends to enter. 

"Hey, Yuge!" Joey said pleasantly, sitting down in a nearby bean-bag chair and making himself comfortable. Tristen took a regular chair near the window, and Tea settled herself in a third, near the end of the bed. 

"Hey, guys! Nice to see you," the hikari said, smiling around at each of his friends. He didn't notice the look exchanged by Yami and Joey; Yami shook his head quietly, and Joey shrugged before launching off into an account of the school day. There didn't seem to have been much that went on that day, but Yugi enjoyed hearing of the small, unimportant gossip and activities that made up so much of a teen's life. Tea had thoughtfully brought over his homework, as well, as she shared a majority of his classes. 

After a good half hour of regular chatter, in which all of the teenagers participated in--with the exception of Yami--the talk finally came around to Yugi's odd journey.

Surprisingly, it was the boy himself that brought it up, when he asked a single question. "How long had I been gone? When I went through the portal, I mean?"

Yami answered the question instantly. "It couldn't have been more than five hours. Why?"

Yugi looked shocked. "But...but over there...I was gone for almost a day!"

Yami blinked. "Over where?" he asked, confused. 

His Light replied easily. "The Negative Realm. It's...it's like a reflection of our Realm here...with all of us...but acting differently, almost opposite..."

Seeing his friends' confused looks, Yugi sighed. "I suppose I ought to tell you the whole story, hmm?" At the encouraging nods from his friends, he leaned back against the backboard of his bed, thinking carefully. "Alright. I guess it started after I got pulled through that portal..."

In as much detail as he could possibly manage, Yugi told them of his entire journey through the Negative Realm. Each of his friends had been surprised, but interested. Tristen had found the news of his own death rather startling, for he had turned a pale shade and had leaned back in his chair slightly, as if trying to back away from the story-teller. Tea hadn't really enjoyed the story much, finding the whole idea of such a troubled Realm nerve-wracking. Joey had enjoyed the tale the most, particularly hearing about himself in the Negative Realm. He had scoffed at the idea of him getting along with Kaiba; in fact, he had laughed for several minutes straight as his friend told him of the two working together flawlessly to break into a well-guarded building. 

Yami hated the entire story. He despised his other self, and of hearing about everything his Negative self had done. When he learned that he was responsible for the deaths of Yugi, Tristen, Mokuba, and the torture of Ryou's and Kaiba's minds, he had become withdrawn from the rest of the group, mulling over the whole story in anger. However, once Yugi had finished retelling his journey, Yami had snapped out of his thoughts to speak.

"Well, Yugi, I believe I have the answer to your question. It is very possible that time would pass differently in different Realms. This...this 'Negative Realm' must have a faster time flow than our own time span...yet at the same time it is coupled exactly with our own Realm. Quite interesting..." he broke off, muttering to himself, obviously returning to his previous thoughts on his Negative self. 

Yugi sighed when he was done, glad to have finally shared his story with _somebody _from his Realm. He blinked, looked around his room, and suddenly asked, "but...how did I get back here?"

Joey answered his question this time. "Me'n Yami found you...you got chucked outta that portal thing back in the alley, but Yami caught you and took you home."

"Oh..." Yugi smiled at his darker half, sending a thought through the link to the still-muttering Pharaoh.

/Thanks, Yami./

//You've nothing to thank me for. I had to help you, you were tired and you needed it.//

/Be that as it may, thanks anyway, Yami./

The boy could feel a smile through the link before his darker half spoke. //You are very welcome, Aibou.//

Tea broke their mind conversation with a question of her own. "But...but why did that portal...thing...take just _Yugi? _Why didn't it take Yami too?"

The ancient Pharaoh frowned thoughtfully before speaking. "Balance," he said slowly.

"What?" Tea asked, confused.

"Balance. Everything has to be in balance. My guess is that the Negative Realm was too off-balance to continue to exist successfully, and those that lived in that Realm could not fix it on their own. So the Shadow Realm drew Yugi from _our _Realm to fix the balance. But it couldn't take more than was necessary, or the balance would be thrown off completely in the opposite direction." Yami sighed, shaking his head. "The problem is, if my theory is true, then it could happen again."

Yugi blinked in surprise. "It could?"

"It could, and if the balance is upset again, it most likely will. Though it may take a different person next time, according to what requirements the balance needs." The Pharaoh shook his head again. "I honestly do not know, Yugi. I've never been a philosopher or scholar. It's just a guess."

There was a silence that filled the room, as each person went over the tale of the Negative Realm that they had received. After several seconds, somebody spoke, but it was quite unexpected--the speaker was Yugi.

"Well...if it happens again, we'll just have to go along with it and help out."

Yami nodded slowly. "If the Shadow Realm desires balance between reflected Realms, than so be it. I, at least, would have no choice but to obey."

There was another long period of uncomfortable silence. Finally, fidgeting, Joey started up a new, friendlier topic about a sports game that was coming up within a few days. 

Talk strayed back to normal subjects, and pretty soon most of the teens had forgotten the conversation in favor of more interesting talk. Yugi, however had not; nor had Yami. While Joey and Tristen got into another heated argument about which school athlete was the best, the Yami and his Hikari were chatting quietly about the whole Negative Realm ordeal. After several minutes of talk, Yugi finally brought the conversation near it's end.

/Yami?/ he asked slowly, waiting for the comforting response of his guardian.

//Yes, Yugi?//

/Just promise me one thing, whatever you do./

//And that would be?//

/_Never _get separated from me again, okay?/

A deep laugh coursed through Yugi's mind as his darker side formed his thought reply. //I intend to uphold that promise, Aibou.//

End

*****

We come back to HCG's room, where all the muses and guest characters are waiting for her to finish the story. Kaiba and Yami have long since re-awoken. Slash, Karma, and Yugi are standing patiently along the sides of the walls, watching HCG. Yami seems a bit annoyed, as HCG is staring directly at the eye symbol on his Millennium Puzzle unblinkingly.

HCG: Eye of Horus?

Yami: *exasperated* YES, it is an Eye of Horus!

HCG: O_O! ^___^ EYE OF HORUS! ^______^

Yami: o_O;;

Karma: -_-;; Don't let her start. She's been doing that aaaaaall day!

Yami: Doing what?

Karma: Yelling about that Eye. She found a picture of the Eye of Horus online today and noticed that it looked the same as the symbol on the Puzzle. Ever since then, every time she watches Yu-Gi-Oh! and sees you or Yugi, she points to the Puzzle and yells about that Eye. 

HCG: EYEOFHORUS!EYEOFHORUS!EYEOFHORUS!

Karma: Gack! *rams head against wall* Somebody shut'er up!

HCG: *hurt* But it looks really cool...I even drew it on my hand!

Yami: o_O;; Oookay...

Yugi: Er...think of something else, HCG...like...like Duel Monsters! ^_^

HCG: Hey, that reminds me! I got a Yu-Gi-Oh! Kaiba starter deck the other day. 

Kaiba: O_O;;

HCG: And that means...I NOW HOLD A BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON! HAHAHAHAHA! *waves dragon card around*

Kaiba: NUUUU! *grabs card and rips it to shreds* Now I am again the only holder of the Blue Eyes!

HCG: O_O;; YAMIIIIII! MIND CRUSH HIM FOR MEEEE!

Yami: *evil grin* My pleasure...

Yugi: Deja Vu?

Kaiba: O_O EEEP! *runs off, Yami chasing him*

HCG: I lost a muse...oh well...*snaps back to fic* RIGHT! Presents! Well, firstly, to all you great reviewers out there...thanks so much for surviving through my fic! Here is your first gift: a plushie of the Negative Realm Character of your choice! *places a basket of plushies out for the reviewers to take* And...Aibou....this one is for you, straight from N.R. Bakura *holds out a N.R. Bakura plushie* It's got a note on it...it says, "Hug THIS, not ME." o_O;; Nice guy, but not terribly good with words, huh?

Slash: Next gift!

HCG: Right! Well, to all you reviewers who asked me to keep writing...sorry, but this is THE END. However...I AM writing a sequel! And lucky readers, you, you get an early summary of the story! ^_~

****

Negative Chaos

High Crystal Guardian

~The Shadow Realm's power is beginning to grow to high for the Realm alone to sustain, and now a great amount of energy and magic is overflowing into the True Realm with disastrous results. Yugi and his friends try to stop the power before it completely covers the world in death and darkness, but they aren't strong enough. So the Realms' Balance is put into play, and a new gate to the Negative Realm appears, with three old friends coming through to assist against the dangerous Shadow Powers...

HCG: How's that for a summary? ^_^ Sit tight and wait for the above story to start! Just give me a week or two to write out a full outline...I personally think it'll be a lot longer than this current fic here...anyway, please review! Just cause this story is over doesn't mean you can't review! Please! And take a plushie! ^_~


End file.
